Naive

TheOldMole
Nov 11 2008 11:12 AM

Am I just getting old -- or perhaps naive? A student wrote "naivety" on his paper. I was about to mark it for spelling, when I noticed that Spellcheck had not flagged it. So I looked it up in Merriam-Webster online, and found that it's not only an accepted spelling, it's the preferred spelling. "Naivete" (forgive the lack of accent marks) is relegated to "chiefly British."

I asked a young teaching assistant, and he was as nonplussed as I was.

Edgy DC
Nov 11 2008 11:20 AM

It's a word orignating in France, so it's funny to call the French-er version "chiefly British" and the more English word, by implication, chiefly American.

How about Merriam-Webster listing the umlaut-free version as the primary spelling?

Main Entry: na·ive
Variant(s): or na·ïve \nä-ˈēv, nī-\
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): na·iv·er; na·iv·est
Etymology: French naïve, feminine of naïf, from Old French, inborn, natural, from Latin nativus native
Date: 1654
1: marked by unaffected simplicity : artless , ingenuous
2 a: deficient in worldly wisdom or informed judgment ; especially : credulous b: not previously subjected to experimentation or a particular experimental situation (made the test with naive rats) ; also : not having previously used a particular drug (as marijuana) c: not having been exposed previously to an antigen (naive T cells)
3 a: self-taught , primitive b: produced by or as if by a self-taught artist (naive murals)

John Cougar Lunchbucket
Nov 11 2008 11:27 AM

One of those words I generally try to avoid when writing for just that reason.

soupcan
Nov 11 2008 01:20 PM

Just like 'expresso' in lieu of 'espresso'.

Drives me crazy.