Word of the Day: INCHOATE
Rudimentary or recently begun
inchoate (adj) - incipient, undeveloped, or amorphous; not fully formed; vague and not yet fully articulated
inchoate as a legal term describes legal rights, liens, or crimes that have been initiated but not yet finalized or executed
inchoative refers to the beginning, initiation, or early stage of a process or state
BREAKDOWN: The word inchoate has impractical classical roots, deriving from the Latin inchoare meaning to commence or begin. That word was a corruption or alteration of incohare, which meant to commence, start work on, or hitch up. Ultimately, the base root is cohum, a term for a strap or hollow in an ox’s yoke used to hitch a plow. Despite apparent similarities, inchoate is not related to the word cohere.
“One of our deepest struggles in life is dealing with the unconscious anxiety inside of us that pressures us to try to give ourselves significance and immortality. There is always the inchoate gnawing: do something to guarantee that something of your life will last. It is this propensity that tempts us to try to find meaning and significance through success and accumulation. But in the end it does not work, irrespective of how great our successes have been.” —Ronald Rolheiser
[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]