Inceptive

Inceptive is an adjective describing the beginning or onset of something, especially an action or process. It is used to denote onset rather than completion, and appears in both general and technical contexts.

Etymology: the word comes from Latin incipere, meaning “to begin,” with the past participle inceptus. In English, inceptive is primarily encountered in linguistic or theoretical discussions rather than in everyday speech.

In linguistics, an inceptive aspect indicates the initiation of an action. Some languages have dedicated inceptive forms that translate roughly as “to begin to do X.” In others, initiation is expressed with auxiliary constructions or periphrasis. In contrast, the related notion of inchoative marks the transition into a new state, and exact definitions vary across languages; some traditions treat inceptive and inchoative as overlapping or closely related.

Example: The sentence “The runners began to run” conveys the onset of running. In a language with a true inceptive morphology, a single verb form might express the meaning “to begin running” without an auxiliary.

See also: inchoative, incipient, inception.