innocuous
English edit
Etymology edit
From Latin innocuus (“harmless”).
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈnɒkjuəs/
- (US) IPA(key): /ɪˈnɑkjuəs/
Audio (US) (file) - Hyphenation: in‧noc‧u‧ous
Adjective edit
innocuous (comparative more innocuous, superlative most innocuous)
- Harmless; producing no ill effect.
- Synonyms: innoxious, nonpoisonous, nontoxic, undamaging, unharmful, harmless
- Antonyms: nocuous, noxious, harmful, poisonous, toxic; see also Thesaurus:harmful
- 1838, Richard Chenevix Trench, “Sonnet I. To England. In the Tyrol.”, in Sabbation; Honor Neale; and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 158:
- With its green cupola or tapering spire, / Which sunset touches with innocuous fire, / The little church appears, to sanctify / The precincts duly where men live and die— [...]
- 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 9, in A Footnote to History:
- The shells fell for the most part innocuous; an eyewitness saw children at play beside the flaming houses; not a soul was injured.
- 1911, Bram Stoker, “Mesmer’s Chest”, in The Lair of the White Worm, London: William Rider and Son, […], →OCLC, page 110:
- Other things, too, there were, not less deadly though seemingly innocuous—dried fungi, the touch of which was death and whose poison was carried on in the air; also traps intended for birds, beast, fishes, reptiles, and insects; machines which could produce pain of any kind and degree, and the only mercy of which was the power of producing speedy death.
- 1997, David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN:
- The effects of any one instance of TV absorbing and pablumizing cultural tokens seems innocuous enough.
- 2011 September 2, “Wales 2 — 1 Montenegro”, in BBC Sport[1]:
- As the half closed [Gareth] Bale and [Joe] Ledley both went close with good efforts, but [Craig] Bellamy picked up a yellow card for an innocuous challenge that also rules the new Liverpool man out of the trip to Wembley.
- Inoffensive; unprovocative; unexceptionable.
- Synonym: uncontroversial
- 1893, Gilbert Parker, chapter 12, in Mrs. Falchion:
- Ruth Devlin announced that the song must wait, though it appeared to be innocuous and child-like in its sentiments.
- 1910, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 29, in The Intrusion of Jimmy:
- He sat down, and lighted a cigarette, casting about the while for an innocuous topic of conversation.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
Translations edit
harmless — see also harmless
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inoffensive — see also inoffensive
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