incipient

English

WOTD – 1 November 2007

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incipiēns, present participle of incipiō (“begin”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈsɪp.i.ənt/
• Rhymes: -ɪpiənt
• Hyphenation: in‧cip‧i‧ent

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Homophone: insipient

Adjective

incipient (not comparable)

1. In an initial stage; beginning, starting, coming into existence.

   After 500 years, incipient towns appeared.

   Employees shall be familiarized with the use of a fire extinguisher in incipient stage fire fighting.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 141:

     How many more places might have been distributed by her incipient majesty it is impossible to say, for the thread of her meditation was broken by the sudden termination of the path.

   • 1995, Andreu Mas-Colell, Michael D. Whinston, and Jerry R. Green, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford University Press, page 115:

     It may even be that because of incipient satiation, the shares of the marginal dollar display consumption propensities that are the reverse of the ones exhibited by the average dollar.

   • 2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 405:

     Aislyn presses back against her house’s front door, panting a little with an incipient panic attack.

Usage notes

Do not confuse incipient ("starting", "beginning") with insipient ("foolish", "stupid").

Synonyms

• (beginning): beginning, commencing, emerging, starting, inchoate, nascent

Translations

beginning, starting

• Bulgarian: начален (bg) m (načalen), зараждащ се (zaraždašt se)
• Catalan: incipient
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 初期的 (chūqí de)

• Dutch: beginnend (nl)
• Finnish: alkava (fi), orastava (fi)
• French: incipient (fr), commençant (fr)
• German: einsetzend (de)
• Japanese: 初期の (しょきの, shoki no)
• Kazakh: алғашқы (alğaşqy)
• Latin: incipiēns
• Polish: początkowy (pl)
• Portuguese: incipiente (pt)
• Russian: начина́ющийся (ru) (načinájuščijsja), появля́ющийся (ru) (pojavljájuščijsja), зарожда́ющийся (ru) (zaroždájuščijsja), нача́льный (ru) (načálʹnyj)
• Slovak: prvotný, počiatočný
• Spanish: incipiente (es)
• Turkish: başlangıç (tr) aşamasında, halinde, başlayan (medicine)

Noun

incipient (plural incipients)

1. (obsolete) A beginner.
2. (grammar) A verb tense of the Hebrew language.

Synonyms

• (beginner): beginner, inceptor

Related terms

• inception
• incipience
• incipiency
• incipiently
• incipit

Anagrams

• Picentini

Latin

Verb

incipient

1. third-person plural future active indicative of incipiō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin incipiens or Italian incipiente.

Adjective

incipient m or n (feminine singular incipientă, masculine plural incipienți, feminine and neuter plural incipiente)

1. incipient

Declension

Declension of incipient

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	incipient		incipientă	incipienți	incipiente
	definite	incipientul		incipienta	incipienții	incipientele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	incipient		incipiente	incipienți	incipiente
	definite	incipientului		incipientei	incipienților	incipientelor