Ingenius

Soldato
Joined
4 Aug 2008
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Manchester.
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.
 
Soldato
Joined
17 Oct 2002
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5,538
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.
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2005
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17,615
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Bristol
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.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
4 Aug 2008
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4,936
Location
Manchester.
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?
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Apr 2003
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4,328
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...
 
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