ingenuous

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin ingenuus (“of noble character, frank”). Doublet of ingenu.

adj

1. Naive and trusting.
2. Demonstrating childlike simplicity.
3. Unsophisticated; clumsy or obvious.
   The apparent contradictions in his behaviour should therefore be discounted as ingenuous attempts to extricate himself from the consequences of an intellectual position which he once adopted but was never really his by intimate conviction. 1965, New Left Review, page 86
   […] Semitic agitation by stating 'the truth' in terms of facts and figures, the practice of self-criticism represented a well-intended but ingenuous effort to defend Jewry against anti-Semitism. 1978, G. Lebzelter, Political Anti-Semitism in England 1918–1939, page 150
   There was nothing more I dared say. My ingenuous attempts to lie my way out of trouble had only served to get me in deeper and deeper. 2012, Hester Rowan, The Linden Tree
4. Unable to mask one's feelings.
5. Straightforward, candid, open, frank.