I searched the forums unsuccessfully to see if this topic had been covered, so apologies if my inaugural post is a duplication. Some friends and I were discussing recently if there is a specific word for the act of feigning ignorance (or playing dumb). We couldn't come up with one.

Thanks for any assistance.

Welcome aBoard, DD. I ran your description through Onelook's reverse dictionary, and came up with nothing that seemed appropriate. My thought is, then, that it's likely some variation on the words sly or tricky will have to suffice.
Main Entry: sly
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: clever, devious
Synonyms: arch, artful, astute, bluffing, cagey, calculating, canny, captious, conniving, covert, crafty, crooked, cunning, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, designing, dishonest, dishonorable, dissembling, double-dealing, elusive, foxy, furtive, guileful, illusory, impish, ingenious, insidious, intriguing, mean, mischievous, plotting, roguish, scheming, secret, sharp, shifty, shrewd, slick, smart, smooth, sneaking, stealthy, subtle, traitorous, treacherous, tricky, underhand, unscrupulous, wily
thesaurus.com

There would be many exemples of feigning something for which there is not one specific word. I guess there are too many subjects to be sly or tricky on to form specific words. Maybe other languages have it.
feigning ignorance- feigning having knowledge
feigning sympathy - feigning feeling hatred
feigning poverty - feigning whealth
feigning weakness - feigning strenght
feigning indifference - feigning attention

Of course having a quality is not the same thing as pretending that you don't have the quality.

Sometimes one might be credited with more intelligence than one actually has. What could appear as feigning ignorance might be the real thing.

Uh?? Puzzle (Fal) and puzzle (Avy). Unfeigned surprize.

What could appear as feigning ignorance might be the real thing.

"Disingenuous" is a pretty exact fit for "feigning ignorance."

"Disingenuous" is a pretty exact fit for "feigning ignorance."

can't agree with this.

here's a usage note from AHD4:
The meaning of disingenuous has been shifting about lately, as if people are unsure of its proper meaning. Generally, it means "insincere" and often seems to be a synonym of cynical or calculating. Not surprisingly, the word is used often in political contexts, as in It is both insensitive and disingenuous for the White House to describe its aid package and the proposal to eliminate the federal payment as "tough love." This use of the word is accepted by 94 percent of the Usage Panel. Most Panelists also accept the extended meaning relating to less reproachable behavior. Fully 88 percent accept disingenuous with the meaning "playfully insincere, faux-naïf," as in the example "I don't have a clue about late Beethoven!" he said. The remark seemed disingenuous, coming from one of the world's foremost concert pianists. Sometimes disingenuous is used as a synonym for naive, as if the dis- prefix functioned as an intensive (as it does in certain words like disannul) rather than as a negative element. This usage does not find much admiration among Panelists, however. Seventy-five percent do not accept it in the phrase a disingenuous tourist who falls prey to stereotypical con artists.

Isn't "faux-naif" French for feigned ignorance?

Yes, but it is also two words sort of. Like faux-filet or faux- monnayeur.

Yes I got it. Nice!
Faldage's phrases look to me like and Escher etching in words. I'm still trying to get it.

Yeah. I did not understand faldage's phrase (nice aliteration) either. Mine is what it says. Sometimes people stamp 'intelligent' on your forehead which is then a pain to live upto. If you have a genuine 'duh' in your brain and you speak it out, they think you are feigning it because your forehead says 'intelligent.' I am not talking about me of course. My forehead says 'certified stupid' and I like that. At least I got some place to go. (Off topic question - is there a word for aliteration like faldage's phrase and certified stupid - where the F sound comes from two different phonemes?)

Nah, I'd rather analize the sentence:

"Of course having a quality is not the same thing as pretending that you don't have the quality."

We must faux-filet it: Take off the personal baggage en simplify the unnecessary use of two different articles and other superfluous details.

- having a quality is not the same thing as having a quality which you pretend not to have -

Looks like an empty comparison to me as in both cases you still have the quality.

A cleverly veiled platitude?
(the nitpicking company)

I remember someone posting something that I took to mean that, e.g., feigning ignorance meant having knowledge. My simple line was meant as a counter to this definition. In this case, to be more specific, knowing something is not the same thing as pretending you don't know it.

Of course, now I can't find the line I was responding to.

I was just playing a bit with it. Something in the direction of:

A child is a young humang being.
A young human being is a child.

An willow is a tree.
A tree is not necessarily a willow. Or such.

I see the example given as, clearly, one of "feigning ignorance," albeit not deceitfully. I also agree with zed and think "feigning ignorance" could be a literal translation of "faux naïf" - falsely naive. How is that not so?

I agree that one has the quality in both cases, but that hardly makes it an empty comparison. The point is that one individual is being deceptive, the other is not.

Ja, I think I looked at it from the quality's point of vieuw. I overlooked the individuals and the blissed summertime is dimming my wit if ever I had it. ;~)

in the old days in auto racing, it was known as "sand-bagging".

On the same track, so to speak, but "sand-bagging" (in my experience) connotes a feigned incapacity, rather than feigned ignorance - more physical than intellectual.

a good point.