innocuous meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

innocuous

adj

UK /ɪˈnɒkjuəs/ · US /ɪˈnɑkjuəs/

Etymology From Latin innocuus (“harmless”) (therefore, no gemination in + nocuous).

Harmless; producing no ill effect.

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— [...]1838, Richard Chenevix Trench, “Sonnet I. To England. In the Tyrol.”, in Sabbation; Honor Neale; and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 158:
The shells fell for the most part innocuous; an eyewitness saw children at play beside the flaming houses; not a soul was injured.1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 9, in A Footnote to History:

3 more examples

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.1911, Bram Stoker, “Mesmer’s Chest”, in The Lair of the White Worm, London: William Rider and Son, […], →OCLC, page 110:
The effects of any one instance of TV absorbing and pablumizing cultural tokens seems innocuous enough.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:
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.2011 September 2, “Wales 2 — 1 Montenegro”, in BBC Sport:

Inoffensive; unprovocative; unexceptionable.

Ruth Devlin announced that the song must wait, though it appeared to be innocuous and child-like in its sentiments.1893, Gilbert Parker, chapter 12, in Mrs. Falchion:
He sat down, and lighted a cigarette, casting about the while for an innocuous topic of conversation.1910, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 29, in The Intrusion of Jimmy: