inchoate

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 22, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>inchoate</strong> &#149; \in-KOH-ut\&nbsp; &#149; <em>adjective</em><br /> <p><em>Inchoate</em> means "imperfectly formed or formulated."</p> <p>// In the podcast, the author described the process by which she took a series of <em>inchoate</em> vignettes and shaped them into her best-selling novel.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inchoate">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"Petrifying sights and sounds haunt her nights and <em>inchoate</em> shadows hover around her." — Jeannette Catsoulis, <em>The New York Times</em>, 19 Aug. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p><em>Inchoate</em> comes from <em>inchoare,</em> which means "to start work on" in Latin but translates literally as "to hitch up" (<em>inchoare</em> combines the prefix <em>in-</em> with the Latin noun <em>cohum</em>, which refers to the strap that secures a plow beam to a draft animal's yoke). The concept of this initial step toward the larger task of plowing a field explains how <em>inchoate</em> came to describe something (as a plan or idea) in its early, not fully formed, stages of development.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>