Incipient

Word of the Day for Monday February 28, 2005

incipient \in-SIP-ee-uhnt\, adjective:
Beginning to exist or appear.
Main Entry: in·cip·i·ent
Pronunciation: -&nt
Function: adjective
: beginning to come into being or to become apparen

Also, improved diagnostic techniques can alert individuals to incipient illnesses.
--James Flanigan, "Patients' Rights and Health-Care Costs Are Expanding Together," Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1999

Shiv gradually became aware that he was onto something big, bigger than anything he had ever done before. He was nudged by an incipient awareness that perhaps it was even too big for him.
--Ken Kalfus, Pu-239 and Other Russian Fantasies

She sighed for him; so young, and yet so passé, and with an incipient beer belly.
--Shena MacKay, The Artist's Widow

Sir George devoted much of his energies to worrying about money and was preoccupied by thoughts of his incipient pauperdom.
--Philip Ziegler, Osbert Sitwell


Incipient is derived from Latin incipere, "to undertake, to begin" (literally "to take in"), from in-, "in" + capere, "to take." It is related to inception, "beginning, commencement."
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incipient blizzard!