ingenious: [15] Ingenious used to be a more elevated term than it is today. To begin with it meant ‘highly intelligent’, but already by the 16th century it was starting to come down in the world somewhat to ‘cleverly inventive’. It comes, partly via French ingénieux, from Latin ingeniōsus, a derivative of ingenium ‘natural talent, skill’ (a word which, like English gene, generate, genital, etc, goes back ultimately to Indo-European *gen- ‘produce’, and was also the source of English engine).
Its formal similarity to the distantly related ingenuous has led in the past to its being used for ‘honest, open, frank’, and indeed its semantic derivative ingenuity ‘quality of being ingenious’ [16] belongs etymologically to ingenuous. => gene, general, generate, genital
ingenious (adj.)
early 15c., "intellectual, talented," from Middle French ingénieux "clever, ingenious" (Old French engeignos), from Latin ingeniosus "of good capacity, full of intellect; clever, gifted with genius," from ingenium "innate qualities, ability," literally "that which is inborn," from in- "in" (see in- (2)) + gignere, from PIE *gen- "produce" (see genus). Sense of "skillful, clever at contrivance" first recorded 1540s. In a sense of "crafty, clever, skillful" Middle English had enginous (mid-14c.), from Old French engeignos, also engineful "skillful (in war)" (c. 1300). Related: Ingeniously; ingeniousness.
中文解释
ingenuous 诚实的，真诚的ingenious 天才的【u（you）诚实，i（I）天才】
实用例句
1. ingenious ways of saving energy
节约能源的巧妙方法
来自《权威词典》
2. The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.
导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念.
来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
3. Try to think of unusual and ingenious solutions.