inaugurate

Etymology

First recorded c. 1600,^[1][2] borrowed from Latin inaugurātus, past participle of Latin inaugurāre (“to consecrate or install after taking auguries”),^[3][2] from in- + augurāre “to take auguries”, from augur “soothsayer”.^[3][4] In ancient Rome, induction into office included the taking of auguries,^[1] especially from the flight of birds.^[3]

Etymonline also treats the verb partly as a back-formation from inauguration,^[1] and Wiktionary allows a borrowing from French inaugurer.^[5] Compare augur.^[3]

References

1. [1] [2] [3] Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. [1] [2] Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
3. [1] [2] [3] [4] Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. [1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: Houghton Mifflin
5. [1] Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org