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dingegno

Dingegno is an Italian noun that historically denotes both a physical device or contraption and the mental capacity for ingenuity or resourcefulness. In older Italian, it could refer to a clever mechanism, instrument, or plan devised to accomplish a task, as well as to the wit or skill of the person who designed or used it. Over time, the form dingegno has largely fallen out of standard modern Italian, with ingegno used for the abstract sense of ingenuity and disegno or progetto for a plan or design.

Etymology and usage history: The word dingegno is a historical variant of ingegno. It appears primarily in

Contemporary status: In contemporary Italian, dingegno is considered archaic or stylistic. The ordinary language tends to

See also: ingegno, disegno, progetto, invenzione.

early
modern
and
Renaissance-era
texts,
in
contexts
ranging
from
inventories
of
instruments
to
treatises
on
invention,
mechanics,
architecture,
and
the
arts.
In
literary
uses,
it
could
convey
both
a
practical
contrivance
and
a
person's
cleverness.
use
ingegno
to
express
ingenuity
or
intellect,
and
disegno
or
progetto
to
denote
a
design
or
plan.
Nevertheless,
dingegno
remains
of
interest
in
historical
writings,
philology,
and
studies
of
Italian
linguistic
variation.