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Disingenuous vs Underhanded - What's the difference?

disingenuous | underhanded |

As adjectives the difference between disingenuous and underhanded

is that disingenuous is not noble; unbecoming true honor or dignity; mean; unworthy; fake or deceptive while underhanded is done by moving the hand (and arm) from below.

disingenuous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not noble; unbecoming true honor or dignity; mean; unworthy; fake or deceptive.
  • Not ingenuous; not frank or open; uncandid; unworthily or meanly artful.
  • * 1726 , , The Poems of Alexander Pope: The Odyssey of Homer. Books XIII-XXIV , edited by Maynard Mack, Methuen, 1969, volume 10, page 378:
  • I am not so vain as to think these Remarks free from faults, nor so disingenuous as not to confess them:
  • Assuming a pose of naivete to make a point or for deception.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "disingenuous" is often applied: attempt, argument, statement, conduct, people, excuse, question, assertion.

    Derived terms

    * disingenuously * disingenuousness

    underhanded

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Done by moving the hand (and arm) from below.
  • Sly, dishonest, corrupt, cheating.
  • His underhanded trick backfired and he was disqualified.
  • :An underhanded compliment is actually criticism.
  • Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "underhanded" is often applied: tactic, way, dealing, method, trick, manner, thing, deal, scheme, practice.