“Disputes with men, pertinaciously obstinate in their principles, are, of all others, the most irksome; except, perhaps, those with persons, entirely disingenuous, who really do not believe the opinions they defend, but engage in the controversy, from affectation, from a spirit of opposition, or from a desire of showing wit and ingenuity, superior to the rest of mankind.” – from An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) by Scottish philosopher David Hume

Approximately 100 years before Hume wrote this essay, the word disingenuous entered the English language. You’ve probably already made a guess as to part of the meaning of this word after you identified the common prefix dis-, which generally indicates “not” or “the opposite” of something. The root of the word comes from the Latin generis, which has the general translation “arise, produce, give birth.” In this case, we add both the prefix in- (“in, from”) and the prefix dis- (“not”) to get a word that means essentially “not arising from, not native to” with the common meaning of “false.” Someone who is acting in a disingenuous manner is acting falsely, often pretending ignorance about something in order to fool someone else. In the quote above, Hume is referring to people who pretend to believe in something just so that they can cause arguments with or problems for other people.

When this act of pretending is done openly and honestly – that is, when a person admits this is what they’re doing – such a strategy is often called playing devil’s advocate. This often happens during a discussion where people are trying to figure something out, solve a problem, or develop a strategy. In this case, when one person “pretends” to not know something and asks questions or argues, it may cause the other people involved to think more deeply about the issue, or come up with new ideas.

One final note on this word: don’t confuse it with the word ingenious, which means “brilliant, innovative” or “inherently clever.” Although both of these words started with the same Latin root, they ended up as very different characteristics!