Ingenius

[starfighter]

When did Genius officially replace ingenius as the adjective?

The same happened with flammable and inflamable but that was speeding up natural selection when it was mixed up with immflamable and someone died or something.

But in recent years ingenius has completly gone and everyone uses genius. Even on official things like the BBC and newspapers I see it abused all the time.


As you can see from my post I am no spelling expert or grammar nazi but it just seems weird how the popularity of the word genius has got rid of ingenius.

If anyone says to me "That's Genius" I just wanna punch them in the face due to the obvious irony of the incorrect statement.


Agggh.

 

[Glaucus]

you do realise language is always evolving and is very much to do with common usage.

 

[starfighter]

you do realise language is always evolving and is very much to do with common usage.

I relise this, but it seems to have all of a sudden happened.

 

[Russinating]

This thread is ingenius.

 

[Retorted]

From what I found on google, they seem to have slightly different meanings.

 

[InvaderGIR]

From what I found on google, they seem to have slightly different meanings.

Indeed.

You don't say someone is a/an ingenius, you say they are a genius.

Also 'ingenius' isn't a word...

Genius
Ingenius
Ingenuous

 

[DreadNiK]

Indeed.

You don't say someone is a/an ingenius, you say they are a genius.

Also 'ingenius' isn't a word...

Genius
Ingenius
Ingenuous

this lol...(without looking at the links)

however, I believe OP is correct in one respect and that is that genius is a noun and not an adjective but these days it get used as an adjective a lot...

 

[antijoke]

This thread is INgenius.

 

[neodude]

I'll just be happy when newsreaders stop saying "an horrific". Annoys the **** off me!

 

[InvaderGIR]

Also a derivative of the latter mentioned word (I think, dictionary.com isn't brilliant at explaining it's links).

Ingenious

Which I think is version the OP means.

 

[GravyMonster]

More to the point, why does ingenious have an 'o' but genius doesn't? Genius looks wrong.

 

[Dave M]

I never thought they came from the same word or meaning.

Ingenious is for me comes from ingenuity and I'd use it to describe a thing or idea.

Genius is something different but almost always (for me) used to describe the person or process that created the thing or idea.

i.e. The idea is ingenious, the guy must be a genius.

 

[InvaderGIR]

i.e. The idea is ingenious, the guy must be a genius.

Spot on.

My links prove this, so I'm not sure what the OP is getting his knickers in a twist about...although I know some people will say 'That was genius' when they should say 'That was ingenious'...that that isn't the worst grammatical crime ever.

 

[starfighter]

OK, So it seems there is anthother word, Ingenious, that makes sense, because it is from ingenuitive.

A person is a genius an idea is ingenious, yep, makes sense to me. But then does that mean "that is genius" is correct or incorrect?

 

[InvaderGIR]

It's incorrect, it should be ingenious due to being an adjective and genius being a noun.

 

[semi-pro waster]

I'll just be happy when newsreaders stop saying "an horrific". Annoys the **** off me!

But that's the traditional way to say it although it depends on the emphasis you put on the "h", if it is a strong plosive sound then you might want to make it "a horrific" but either can be utilised.

 

[platypus]

This thread is ungenius.

 

[markweatherill]

That last post was disingenuous.

 

[[DOD]Asprilla]

More to the point, why does ingenious have an 'o' but genius doesn't?

To trick thickies.

 

[Dinomania]

Ingenious is the real root of the word "Engineer"

Engineers in other countries are called:
ingenjör
inženjer
ingénieur
Ingenieur
ingegnere
inženieris
inginerul
ingeniero

...which I rather like Ingenious engineers - that's what most engineers are though, really, inventors - just iterative inventors - building on what has come before...