disquisition

Pronounced: dis-kwuh-ZISH-uhn, noun

Notes: Not a word I knew

---

Yesterday’s word

The word inchoate means “being only partly in existence or operation; incipient – especially imperfectly formed or formulated; formless; incoherent”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

I thought that our word ended in “ate”, not “uht” – but it turns out that the British pronunciation does end with “ate”. I also thought that the “ch” sounded like the “ch” in “chum” instead of a “k” sound. Our word came the Latin word inchoare (to start work on; literally “to hitch up”), which is made from in- (pertaining to) and cohum (the part of a yoke to which the beam of a plow is fitted). Hooking this up is the first step in plowing a field; thus, our word has the concept of the beginning of an idea, or the early stages of a plan.