The adjective naive is used to qualify the innocent or credulous individual. The term comes from ingenuus , a word from the Latin language.
For example: "How could you be so naive and give all your savings to a man you did not know?" , “The young defender committed a naive penalty that the captain of the rival team capitalized on” , “It was naive to think that we were going to solve the company's problems quickly” .
The lack of maturity and experience makes a person is naive. That is why naivety is usually a characteristic of children, who tend to believe what they are told. Over the years, the human being acquires the ability to more accurately distinguish what is true from what is false and also tends to become more distrustful.
However, adults are often naïve and deceived. Suppose a man receives an email from a so-called African millionaire asking for his help to get a large amount of money out of his country. This subject requests a bank account to transfer the amount, promising the recipient of the email a percentage as a commission. A few days later, to face unforeseen expenses, the “millionaire” begs for $ 2,000 to be sent to him, which will allow him to carry out procedures and then transfer the money. Naive, the individual who receives the emails sends the sum: he is never contacted again.
Naivety is not an exclusive trait of some people, but a state that we all go through and can go through from time to time in life. While it is true that there are particularly naive individuals, who tend to fall into the clutches of profiteers or to believe in unfounded things very often, no one is safe from a mistake of this type.
To a certain extent, being naive can help us live day to day with hope: it is not bad to let ourselves be carried away by fantasy if this allows us to smile more often. The problem begins when naivety leads us to lose important things, such as our belongings or even certain opportunities that should be ours but we give them to someone who takes advantage of our lack of attention.
Telling another that we consider him naive may be an attempt to help him open his eyes, to be more attentive to potential takers who will always be waiting for the next opportunity to confuse and harm him. Of course, not everyone welcomes this adjective, as it can well be interpreted as a show of contempt.
In short, we cannot go around calling any individual who acts without caution naive, but in any case it is appropriate to show empathy to someone close to help them mature. In addition, it is important to note that if an adult tells a child it is much softer than the opposite, unless there is a strong affective bond and it is a call for attention for their own good.
It is known as the naive, on the other hand, an archetypal character of the theater corresponding to a candid woman who is often deceived. Generally, the naive is a pretty young woman who falls into the traps of another character whom she mistakes for the hero.