| 1 | Middle French | ingénieux | — |
| 2 | Old French | engenious | — |
| 3 | Latin | ingeniōsus | — |
| 4 | Latin | ingenium | innate or natural quality, natural character;... |
| 5 | Latin | gignere | second-person singular future passive indicative... |
| 6 | Latin | genere | ablative singular of genus; to beget, produce |
| 7 | Latin | genus | birth, origin, lineage, descent; kind, type,... |
| 8 | Proto-Italic | genos | lineage, origin |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵénh₁os | race, lineage |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵenh₁- | to produce, to beget, to give birth |