inchoative

1. not comparableInitial; as yet unformed; inchoate.

   Our first Piece is of Winter, or late Autumn, 1771,—while the solution of the Polish Business is still in its inchoative stages; …

   1858–1865, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   [T]he day-Star […] ſhall be riſen in our hearts; vvhereof theſe acts of our intellect ſeem to be ſome inchoative or imperfect rays, […]

   1648, Walter Montagu, “The One and Twentieth Treatise. Of the Preheminences of a True Contemplative Life. §. I. Contemplation Defined, and Some Excellencies thereof Discoursed.”, in Miscellanea Spiritualia: Or, Devout Essaies, London: […] W[illiam] Lee, D[aniel] Pakeman, and G[abriel] Bedell, […], →OCLC, page 387

2. not comparablegrammarAspectually indicating that a state is about to be entered or is in the process of being entered.

   The inchoative (inceptive) aspect of a verb expresses the beginning of an action. Example: He is beginning to crawl.

   1974, Floyd L. Moreland, Rita M. Fleischer, Latin: An Intensive Course, University of California Press, page 12

3. not comparableIn Catalan, being a member of a class of third-conjugation verbs (e.g. servir) in which a syllable -eix- (or otherwise depending on dialect), derived from the Latin inchoative but now without meaning, is inserted into certain conjugations (e.g. serveixo).

plural inchoatives

1. grammarAn inchoative construction.