initium

Latin

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁én

Proto-Italic *en

Proto-Italic *en-

Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey-

Proto-Indo-European *-ti

Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti

Proto-Italic *ejō

Proto-Italic *eō

Proto-Italic *eneō

Latin ineō

Proto-Indo-European *-is

Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós

Proto-Italic *-ijos

Proto-Italic *-ios

Old Latin -ios

Latin -iusnom.

Latin -ium

Latin initium

From ineō (“to go into, enter”) +‎ -ium, the former from in (“into, to”) +‎ eō (“to go, walk, ride, sail, fly, move, pass”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ɪˈnɪ.ti.ũː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [iˈnit.t͡si.um]
• Hyphenation: i‧ni‧ti‧um

Noun

initium n (genitive initiī or initī); second declension

1. beginning, start

   Synonyms: prīncipium, exordium, limen, orīgō, rudīmentum, prīmōrdium

   Antonym: fīnis

   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de bello Gallico 1.1:

     Eorum una pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano

     Another part of the country, which has already been said to contain the Gauls, takes its origin by the Rhone river.

2. a going in, entrance

   Synonyms: ingressus, limen, iānua, ingressiō, foris, porta, vestibulum

   Antonym: abitus

3. (in the plural) rites, mysteries
4. initiative, first move

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

	singular	plural
nominative	initium	initia
genitive	initiī initī1	initiōrum
dative	initiō	initiīs
accusative	initium	initia
ablative	initiō	initiīs
vocative	initium	initia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Derived terms

• initiālis
• initiō

Descendants

Descendants

• → Catalan: inici
• Galician: inzo (“seed”), → inicio
• → Italian: inizio
• Leonese: eniciu (“seed”)
• → Portuguese: início
• → Spanish: inicio
• → Proto-Brythonic: *ɨnɨd
  • Old Breton: enet
    • Breton: Ened
  • Middle Cornish: enez
    • Cornish: Enys
  • Middle Welsh: Ynyt
    • Welsh: Ynyd
  • → Old Irish: init
    • Middle Irish: init
      • Irish: Inid
      • Manx: Ynnyd
      • Scottish Gaelic: Inid

References

• “ĭnĭtĭum”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• initium in Georges, Karl Ernst; Georges, Heinrich (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th edition, volume 2, Hahnsche Buchhandlung, columns 279–280
• R. E. Latham, D. R. Howlett, & R. K. Ashdowne, editors (1975–2013), “initium”, in Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources‎^[1], London: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, →ISBN, →OCLC
• “ĭnĭtĭum”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette, page 822, column 1.
• Harm Pinkster, editor (2018), “initium”, in Woordenboek Latijn/Nederlands‎^[2], 7th revised edition, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC
• Latino-Sinicum [ = 起初 (qǐchū), 始 (shǐ), 來歷／来历 (láilì); ~tiis obscurissimis natus = 甚卑家子出身 (shèn bēi jiāzi chūshēn)], in ΛΟΓΕΙΟΝ [Logeion] Dictionaries for Ancient Greek and Latin (in English, French, Spanish, German, Dutch and Chinese), University of Chicago, since 2011
• “initium”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

Further reading

• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[3], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to begin with a thing: initium capere; incipere ab aliqua re
    
  • to commence a thing: initium facere, ducere, sumere (alicuius rei)
    
  • to start from small beginnings: ab exiguis initiis proficisci
    
  • to begin to speak: initium dicendi facere
    
  • to commence hostilities: bellum incipere, belli initium facere (B. G. 7. 1. 5)
    
  • (ambiguous) the elements: elementa; initia or principia rerum
    
  • (ambiguous) at the beginning of the year: initio anni, ineunte anno