initium

Latin

Etymology

From ineō (“go in, make a start”) +‎ -ium, the former from in (“in, into”) +‎ eō (“go”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /iˈni.ti.um/, [ɪˈnɪt̪iʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /iˈnit.t͡si.um/, [iˈnit̪ː͡s̪ium]

Noun

initium n (genitive initiī or initī); second declension

1. beginning, start

   Synonyms: prīncipium, exordium, limen, orīgō, rudīmentum, prīmōrdium

   Antonym: fīnis

   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 1.1:

     Eorum una pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano

     Another part of the country, which has already been said to contain the Gauls, takes its origin by the Rhone river.

2. a going in, entrance

   Synonyms: ingressus, limen, iānua, ingressiō, foris, porta, vestibulum

   Antonym: abitus

3. (in the plural) rites, mysteries
4. initiative, first move

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	initium	initia
genitive	initiī initī1	initiōrum
dative	initiō	initiīs
accusative	initium	initia
ablative	initiō	initiīs
vocative	initium	initia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• initialis
• initiō

Descendants

• → Old Breton: enet
  • Breton: Ened
• → Catalan: inici
• Galician: inzo (“seed”), → inicio
• → Italian: inizio
• Leonese: eniciu (“seed”)
• → Portuguese: início
• → Spanish: inicio
• → Old Irish: init
  • Middle Irish: init
    • Irish: Inid
    • Manx: Ynnyd
    • Scottish Gaelic: Inid
• → Welsh: Ynyd

References

• “initium”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “initium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• initium in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to begin with a thing: initium capere; incipere ab aliqua re
    
  • to commence a thing: initium facere, ducere, sumere (alicuius rei)
    
  • to start from small beginnings: ab exiguis initiis proficisci
    
  • to begin to speak: initium dicendi facere
    
  • to commence hostilities: bellum incipere, belli initium facere (B. G. 7. 1. 5)
    
  • (ambiguous) the elements: elementa; initia or principia rerum
    
  • (ambiguous) at the beginning of the year: initio anni, ineunte anno