ingenue

Why this word is great

INGENUE — [Noun] A young woman of artless innocence, often embodying wholesome charm or playing such a role on stage. From French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu ("guileless"), originally from Latin ingenuus ("ingenuous, freeborn"). Unlike "naïf" (which suggests a vulnerability to deception) or "coquette" (which implies calculated allure), the ingenue is luminescent in her unselfconscious grace. She is the village maiden in a pastoral poem, her cheeks flushed with unfeigned delight; the wide-eyed heroine of a Victorian novel, her virtue untouched by cynicism; the ingénue in a Chekhov play, her laughter ringing like a silver bell in a world already tarnishing—a fleeting vision of purity before the inevitable fall.