inchoate
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Latin incohātus (“begun, unfinished”), perfect passive participle of incohō (“begin”).
Pronunciation [edit]
Adjective [edit]
inchoate (comparative more inchoate, superlative most inchoate)
- Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.
- Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.
Quotations [edit]
| 1677 | 1803 1839 1885 1892 | 1919 1928 | 2004 | ||||
| ME « | 15th c. | 16th c. | 17th c. | 18th c. | 19th c. | 20th c. | 21st c. |
- 1677, Richard Allestree, The Art of Contentment, p. 187
- It do's indeed perfect and crown thoſe graces which were here inchoate and begun, but no mans converſion ever ſucceeded his being there ...
- 1803, Supreme Court of the United States, Marbury v. Madison
- This appointment is evidenced by an open, unequivocal act, and, being the last act required from the person making it, necessarily excludes the idea of its being, so far as it respects the appointment, an inchoate and incomplete transaction.
- 1839, Cherokee Constitution
- It being determined that a constitution should be made for the inchoate government, men were selected by its sponsors, from those at the Illinois Camp Ground, including as many western Cherokees as could be induced to sign it.
- 1885, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, On the Death of General Gordon
- ...unfortunately, we have to face inchoate schemes which will demand the utmost jealousy and vigilance of Parliament.
- 1889, Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osborne, The Wrong Box, ch. 6
- The private conception of any breach of law is apt to be inspiriting, for the scheme (while yet inchoate) wears dashing and attractive colours.
- 1892, George Gissing, Born In Exile
- A youth whose brain glowed like a furnace, whose heart throbbed with tumult of high ambitions, of inchoate desires.
- 1919, H. P. Lovecraft, The Doom That Came to Sarnath
- Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned.
- 1928, Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
- How inutterably sad was the look this fluid inchoate figure of the wolf threw from his beautiful shy eyes.
- 2004, David Hajdu, "Folk Hero", The New Yorker, 29 March 2004
- Guthrie’s inchoate socialist leanings grew into a deep commitment to the labor movement.
Synonyms [edit]
- (started but not fully formed): elementary, embryonic, immature, incipient, nascent, rudimentary
Translations [edit]
not fully formed
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Noun [edit]
inchoate (plural inchoates)
Verb [edit]
inchoate (third-person singular simple present inchoates, present participle inchoating, simple past and past participle inchoated)
Related terms [edit]
Anagrams [edit]
Latin [edit]
Verb [edit]
inchoāte
- second-person plural present active imperative of inchoō
