A word for a worldly wise person who pretends to be naïve?


What is a word for someone who is experienced and wise, but who deliberately acts naïve?


I don’t intend it for sarcastic use; I’m trying to describe someone succeeding in making people think that that person truly is naïve.


Is there a word for this?



Answer



I’d probably go for disingenuous: “Assuming a pose of naïveté to make a point or for deception.”


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

verbs - "Baby is creeping" vs. "baby is crawling" in AmE

commas - Does this sentence have too many subjunctives?

grammatical number - Use of lone apostrophe for plural?

etymology - Where does the phrase "doctored" originate?

phrases - Somebody is gonna kiss the donkey

typography - When a dagger is used to indicate a note, must it come after an asterisk?

etymology - Origin of "s--t eating grin"