| 释义 |
▪ I. inchoate, a. (n.)|ˈɪnkəʊət|
[ad. L. inchoāt-us (more correctly incohātus), pa. pple. of inchoāre (more correctly incohāre) to begin.]
Just begun, incipient; in an initial or early stage; hence elementary, imperfect, undeveloped, immature.
1534Whitinton Tullyes Offices iii. (1540) 117 No paynter..shoulde fynysshe that parte of Venus which inchoat [and] begon, Apelles left of imperfyte. 1581E. Campion in Confer. ii. (1584) H iv, It was a Church inchoate, beginning, not perfect. a1626Bp. Andrewes Serm. (1856) I. 109 His heavenly grace, which is glory inchoate, He imparteth to His Saints. a1711Ken Hymns Festiv. Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 409 You are in happy State; Our Bliss is only Inchoate. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. xv. 436 If a boy under fourteen, or a girl under twelve years of age, marries, this marriage is only inchoate and imperfect. 1821Syd. Smith Wks. (1859) I. 326/1 Many inchoate acts are innocent, the consummation of which is a capital offence. 1874H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. viii. 473 The position I have ventured to maintain..as to the inchoate, imperfect, and transitional work of John. 1888Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men I. ii. 181 All was as yet in an inchoate state.
b. as n. A beginning, rudiment. rare.
1845R. W. Hamilton Pop. Educ. vi. (1846) 135 The drudgery of teaching and learning the barest inchoates of knowledge.
Add: Also with pronunc. |ɪŋˈkəʊeɪt, -ət|. 2. [Often regarded as unetymologically developed through confusion with chaotic a. 2, though perh. better explained as a regular development from ‘undeveloped’ to ‘lacking structure’.] Chaotic, disordered, confused; also, incoherent, rambling.
1922E. O'Neill Hairy Ape i. 1 The room is crowded with men, shouting, cursing, laughing, singing—a confused, inchoate uproar swelling into a sort of unity, a meaning. 1962Times Lit. Suppl. 16 Mar. 186/1 Out of the inchoate welter of recent published poetry, in magazines and books, emerges an organized body of 344 poems by 102 poets who have become known since 1945. 1989Los Angeles Times 13 Aug. (Bk. Rev.) 7/1 Grass's structural originality is empowered by a desire to create coherence out of his narrative's own inchoate responses.
▪ II. inchoate, v.|ˈɪnkəʊeɪt|
[f. ppl. stem of L. inchoāre (prop. incohāre) to begin: see prec.]
1. trans. To begin, commence, initiate, take the first steps in.
a1612Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 182 This growth (Inchoated, increased, grown great, and perfected). 1647H. More Song of Soul Notes 150/2 The great soul of the World does at least inchoate, and rudely delineate the fabrick of our body at first. 1746–7Act 20 Geo. II, c. 43 §28 That royal burgh..which shall lie nearest to the place where such poynding was inchoated. 1868Browning Ring & Bk. i. 1155 How he..Conceives and inchoates the argument.
b. To cause to begin, originate, bring about.
1654Warren Unbelievers 236 Any moral..inchoating our Justification. 1802Paley Nat. Theol. xxiii. (1819) 390 To inchoate the formation of an eye. 1845Stocqueler Hand-bk. Brit. India (1854) 113 Nor will it inchoate their ruin to expend a few rupees more than an accurate calculation of comforts might allow.
2. intr. To commence, make a beginning.
1654Vilvain Epit. Ess. vii. 75 At the Worlds origin this Book inchoats. 1767A. Campbell Lexiph. (1774) 7, I shall inchoate with one of its most delicious morsels of eloquence. |