Etymologically
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incoho

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪŋ.ko.(ɦ)oː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiŋ.ko.o][1]

Forms

incohō (present infinitive incohāre, perfect active incohāvī, supine incohātum); first conjugation[1] The spelling inchoō is common in manuscripts and editions, but early inscriptions such as Augustus' Res gestae have incohō.[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from in- and cohum, a rare word recorded by grammarians.[2][4][5] De Vaan notes that ⟨cohum⟩ “vault of the sky” is attested only in Ennius and the glosses and its first meaning is obscure;[5] Varro linked it with cavus (“hollow”) and Paulus with cohibeō (“to hold together”).[5] He suggests the verb first meant something like yoking a plough to a team of oxen, “to start work”, and reconstructs Proto-Italic *koχo- (“hole; tie, juncture”); possible cognates are Welsh cae (“fence”) and Old High German hag (“hedge, fence”).[5] Etymonline calls the original sense probably “to hitch up”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Ennius,[5] who in a tragedy speaks of the beginning of building a ship.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means “to start making, begin work on”, a building or a ship, and to make a first draft or sketch: Cicero tells his brother he has begun the books he is waiting for but cannot finish them.[2][3] It is used of bringing a living thing into being and of founding an institution, then generally “to set on foot, initiate”, to begin to treat a topic, and in Statius to begin to speak.[2] Of things it is to mark the beginning of something, as Manilius' constellation that closes winter while the next begins spring; in the passive it is “to begin”.[2]

Church Latin uses the spelling inchoō.[7]

Timeline

  • 204–169 BC – Ennius of beginning a ship.[2][5][8]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of drafting books.[2][8]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius of beginning to speak.[2][8]
  • 1530s – English inchoate is formed from the participle inchoātus.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To start making, begin work on; to draft, sketch out; to found.[2][3][1]
  2. To set on foot, initiate; to begin to treat; to begin to speak.[2][1]
  3. To enter on a period or office.[2]
  4. Of things, to mark the beginning of;[2] (passive) to begin.[2]

Word family

  • incohāmenta
  • incohātiō
  • incohātīvus
  • incohātor
  • incohātus
  • cohum
  • English inchoate

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de