inchoate

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
inchoate
    adj 1: only partly in existence; imperfectly formed; "incipient
           civil disorder"; "an incipient tumor"; "a vague inchoate
           idea" [syn: {incipient}, {inchoate}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Inchoate \In"cho*ate\, a. [L. inchoatus, better incohatus, p. p.
   of incohare to begin.]
   Recently, or just, begun; beginning; partially but not fully
   in existence or operation; existing in its elements;
   incomplete. -- {In"cho*ate*ly}, adv.
   [1913 Webster]

         Neither a substance perfect, nor a substance inchoate.
                                                  --Raleigh.
   [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Inchoate \In"cho*ate\, v. t.
   To begin. [Obs.] --Dr. H. More.
   [1913 Webster]
    
from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
INCHOATE. That which is not yet completed or finished. Contracts are 
considered inchoate until they are executed by all the parties who ought to 
have executed them. For example, a covenant which purports to be tripartite, 
and is executed by only two of the parties, is incomplete, and no one is 
bound by it. 2 Halst. 142. Vide Locus paenitentiae. 
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
152 Moby Thesaurus words for "inchoate":
      abecedarian, aboriginal, aimless, aleatoric, aleatory, amorphic,
      amorphous, anarchic, antenatal, autochthonous, baggy, beginning,
      blobby, blurred, blurry, broad, budding, capricious, casual,
      chance, chancy, chaotic, characterless, confused, creative,
      desultory, disarticulated, disconnected, discontinuous, disjointed,
      disjunct, disordered, disorderly, dispersed, disproportionate,
      elemental, elementary, embryonic, erratic, featureless, fetal,
      fitful, foggy, formative, formless, foundational, frivolous,
      fundamental, fuzzy, general, gestatory, gratuitous, haphazard,
      hazy, hit-or-miss, ill-defined, immethodical, imprecise, in embryo,
      in its infancy, in the bud, inaccurate, inaugural, inceptive,
      inchoative, incipient, incoherent, incunabular, indecisive,
      indefinable, indefinite, indeterminable, indeterminate,
      indiscriminate, indistinct, inexact, infant, infantile, inform,
      initial, initiative, initiatory, introductory, inventive,
      irregular, kaleidoscopic, kindred, lax, loose, lumpen, meaningless,
      misshapen, misty, nascent, natal, nondescript, nonspecific,
      nonsymmetrical, nonsystematic, nonuniform, obscure, orderless,
      original, parturient, planless, postnatal, pregnant, prenatal,
      primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primogenial,
      procreative, promiscuous, random, rudimental, rudimentary,
      senseless, shadowed forth, shadowy, shapeless, spasmodic, sporadic,
      stochastic, straggling, straggly, sweeping, systemless, unarranged,
      unclassified, unclear, undefined, undestined, undetermined,
      undirected, ungraded, unjoined, unmethodical, unordered,
      unorganized, unplain, unsorted, unspecified, unsymmetrical,
      unsystematic, ununiform, ur, vague, veiled, wandering

    

grant@antiflux.org