inchoate

English

WOTD – 10 December 2006

Etymology

From Latin incohātus (“begun, unfinished”), perfect passive participle of incohō (“begin”). Cognate with Spanish incoar (“to initiate, commence, begin”).

Pronunciation

Noun, adjective:

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkəʊət/, /ɪnˈkəʊeɪt/
• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkoʊət/, /ɪnˈkoʊeɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb:

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkəʊeɪt/
• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈkoʊeɪt/

Adjective

inchoate (comparative more inchoate, superlative most inchoate)

1. Recently started but not fully formed yet; just begun; only elementary or immature.

   Synonyms: elementary, immature, embryonic, incipient, nascent, rudimentary

   • (Can we date this quote by Raleigh and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     neither a substance perfect, nor a substance inchoate

   • 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.

   • Template:RQ:Stevenson Wrong Box

     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.

2. Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.
   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 73:

     The Met's chairman, Sir Edward Watkin, was also chairman of that company [the Manchester,Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway], which duplicated other railways' routes in an inchoate way between Manchester and Grimsby, and generally stumbled about the north.

   Synonyms: chaotic, confused

Translations

not fully formed

• Dutch: embryonaal (nl), onvoldragen (nl)
• Finnish: alkeellinen (fi)
• French: embryonnaire (fr)
• German: im Entstehen begriffen, beginnend (de), unausgegoren (de)
• Greek: ατελής (el) m or f (atelís), νεοφανής (el) m or f (neofanís)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 無感性な (むかんせいな, mukansei na)
• Serbo-Croatian: začet, nedovršen (sh)
• Spanish: embrional m, incipiente (es)
• Swedish: outvecklad (sv)

chaotic, incoherent

• Finnish: sekava (fi)
• German: chaotisch (de)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: caótico (es); incoherente (es)

Noun

inchoate (plural inchoates)

1. (rare) A beginning, an immature start.

Verb

1. (transitive) To begin or start (something).
2. (transitive) To cause or bring about.
3. (intransitive) To make a start.

Related terms

• choate (back-formation)
• inchoated
• inchoatedness
• inchoation
• inchoactive

Anagrams

• Noachite, choanite, ethanoic, thiocane

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Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /in.kʰoˈaː.te/, [ɪŋkʰoˈäːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /in.koˈa.te/, [iŋkoˈäːt̪e]

Verb

(deprecated template usage) inchoāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of inchoō