ingenious

adj

Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French ingénieux, from Old French engenious, from Latin ingeniōsus (“endowed with good natural capacity, gifted with genius”), from ingenium (“innate or natural quality, natural capacity, genius”), from in- (“in”) + gignere (“to produce”), Old Latin genere. See also engine.

1. Of a person, displaying genius or brilliance; inventive.

   “This fellow is ingenious; he fixed a problem I didn’t even know I had.”

2. Of a thing, characterized by genius; cleverly contrived or done.

   “That is an ingenious model of the atom.”

   “Many ingenious lovely things are gone / That seemed sheer miracle to the multitude, / protected from the circle of the moon / That pitches common things about.”

3. Showing originality or sagacity; witty.

   “He sent me an ingenious reply to an email.”

   “I have scarcely recovered the surprise of the ingenious question, before I meet another surprise in the still more ingenious answer”