Lecture 8: Words for Beginnings and Endings

Words for Beginnings and Endings

Lecture 8

I

n his famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, Hamlet, contemplating

death and suicide, utters the following words, which have lived on in

Western literature: “To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub; /

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since become one of the most well-known, poetic phrases for death. This

lecture focuses on words relating to death, dying, and endings, as well as

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which help explain some of the seeming idiosyncrasies in English spelling.

Nascent (adjective)

Emerging, developing, coming into existence, forming.

z Nascent can be used to describe the birth of anything, including an

idea, a newly formed group, or a movement. For example: “Her

nascent idea for a new software application wasn’t completely

thought out yet, but it had such incredible potential that investors

were already lining up.”

z Synonyms for nascent include incipient, burgeoning, embryonic,

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z Nascent comes from the Latin root nasc, which in turn comes from

the Latin word nascor, meaning “to be born.” Another root from

this Latin verb is nat. Related words that share this root and have

something to do with birth include nativity, natal, prenatal, innate,

native, and neonatal.