skillful describes unusually creative or intelligent people, and things created or done in a particularly unique or clever way. Innocent describe people and things that show simplicity and straightforwardness, innocence or childishness.
adjectives skillful And innocent differ by a letter and their different letters are next to each other on the QWERTY keyboard, making them easy to confuse. But misspellings aside, people also really confuse the meanings of words.
‘Ingenious’ may have much in common with ‘genius’, but the two words are not etymologically related.
How to Use ‘Skill’
skillful usually describe people who come up with smart ideas or solutions, or ideas or solutions that smart people come up with. It is defined as “having or exhibiting an unusual gift for discovery, invention or manufacture” and is “marked by originality, resourcefulness, and intelligence in conception or execution.” The word comes from Middle English and Middle French from Latin naturalthis also gave us enginea word that originally meant “skillful”.
By the time the bicycle was perfected, around 1885, it was already obsolete: the steam locomotive had been invented decades ago, and the automobile revolution was beginning to stir. But the bike is such an ingenious piece of equipment that it doesn’t matter, in a way, it’s out dated. It uses basic materials and Spartan design—a simple arrangement of wheels, pedals, cranks, and chains—to harness the power of human muscles in an extremely efficient way. . — Jody Rosen, quoted in Dallas Morning NewsMay 26, 2022
Say the word skillful and you hear the word genius inside it, seems appropriate, when we apply genius to someone who has extraordinary intellect or a strong aptitude for something (“she is a genius at fixing computers”). Geniuses can certainly come up with ingenious ideas, but there is no etymological relationship between these words. Genius was originally called a spirit of service and comes from the Latin verb rag (“born”).
How to use ‘skillfully’
Innocent means “showing naive or childish simplicity and frankness” or “lack of tact or delicacy.” It describes a person who, like an innocent child, has no intention of deceiving others.
Smiling and grinning, Morse brought a genuine quality to the roles he played that made even characters bordering on moral dubiousness sympathetic. — Daily telegram (London), April 22, 2022
‘Ingenious’ vs ‘skillful’
Sometimes we see these two words placed side by side and contrasted to highlight their difference:
The right to be wrong, combined with the responsibility to be right, creates a powerful and civilized tension. We are a species skillful enough to project our minds across the universe, and skillful enough to feel awestruck by the sights the sky still offers back home. —Jeffrey Kluger, Time.comAugust 15, 2017
One can see in innocent from ingenioussometimes used today for a young actress or performer but was originally used to refer to an innocent girl or woman. Innocent sounds like it should be the opposite of honestBut IN- the prefix here means “in-” or “in” and is not a negative prefix found in inconvenient or draw. Innocent itself is negated as dishonestmeans “calculation” or “lack of sincerity”; dishonest is slightly more common than its antonym.
pair of skillful And innocent are not always clearly distinguished: at one time they were used synonymously, at that time mostly restricted to the 16th to 18th centuries. However, Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary does not make it fair. take them as synonyms and such usage fell out of favor by the end of the 18th century. So even if you feel just as you are now skillfully using them in this creative and historically supported way, most people would probably consider it a mistake.
Categories: Usage Notes
Source: vothisaucamau.edu.vn
