inchoate

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When inchoate is used in the sense of "confused, disordered, entangled 'by even fairly learned colleagues (with, however, usually no Latin and less Greek), there must be some sort of semantic blund that imparts the sense of chaotic and adds it to the meaning ` incipient.'

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective In an initial or early stage; incipient.
  2. adjective Imperfectly formed or developed: a vague, inchoate idea.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples

  • National parties were inchoate, and many politicians were chary of choosing, and seemed to wait for the development of coming events, ere they gave shape and direction to their future courses. —  The Memories of Fifty Years
  • However inchoate, I am quite aware that Mr. Mallory is our only connection with whatever happened on Treetrunk. —  Dirge
  • So far, this "unspecialty" is in its infancy; its methodology is inchoate, the results are sometimes trivial, and no one knows how to train to become such a man. —  The Worlds Of Robert A Heinlein
  • Between two of the columns there was now a third shadow, inchoate, changing. —  The Gates of Noon
  • When inchoate is used in the sense of "confused, disordered, entangled 'by even fairly learned colleagues (with, however, usually no Latin and less Greek), there must be some sort of semantic blund that imparts the sense of chaotic and adds it to the meaning ` incipient.' —  VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VII No 3
 

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Inchoate has been looked up 1333 times, favorited 14 times, listed 216 times, and commented on 10 times.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin inchoātus, past participle of inchoāre, to begin, alteration of incohāre : in-, in; see in-2 + cohum, strap from yoke to harness.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Latin inchoatus, incohatus, past participle of inchoare, properly incohare (later Old Italian incoare = Spanish incoar), begin, from in, in, on, to, + cohare, not otherwise found.
  2. = Spanish incoado = Portuguese inchoado = Italian incoato, from Latin inchoatus, past participle: see the verb.
 

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/ˈɪnkəeɪt/
by American Heritage

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