Incipere

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To begin or start an action, process, or event; to initiate the first steps of something new; to commence an activity or undertaking
2. To initiate or set in motion a course of events or actions; to take the first step in a process; to embark on starting something original or planned
3. To undertake the initial phase of a task or project; to open or launch a new endeavor; to move from inaction to beginning with purpose or intent

Etymology: "Incipere" is a Latin verb meaning "to begin," built from "in-" ("into, on") and "capere" ("to take, seize"). Its literal sense is something like "to take hold of," which makes sense of the image: to begin is to lay hold of an action at its start. The verb is the source of the English "incipient," used for something just starting to develop, and its relatives reached English through Latin directly rather than through French. Its cousins show how the Latin root spread. "Capere" is also behind "capture," "accept," and "receive," so "incipere" shares its core with words about grasping and taking. In Latin the verb was common in both everyday and literary speech, and its participle "incipiens" passed into scientific and medical writing, where it still carries the sense of an early stage.