20.04.24: inchoative verbs

You possibly never knew that, when you eat a croissant, you’re eating an inchoative verb, but before I talk about that, here are the opening lines of O Fortuna (Codex Buranus circa 12th century) which is also the first piece of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana

O Fortuna ¦ Oh Fortune

Velut luna ¦ Just like the moon

Statu variabilis ¦ variable in state [(you are) changeable]

Semper crescis ¦ You’re always growing [waxing]

Aut decrescis; ¦ Or you’re decreasing [waning]

Vita detestabilis ¦ hateful life

OK, now you have what you need to look at inchoative verbs!

Croissant “increasing” with, in terms of the food item, reference to a crescent moon, a moon that is increasing < French croître: grow; increase. The verb, through Old French, is derived from Latin: crescēns (growing) which, in turn, is from the verb you see in the O Fortuna extract: crēscō, crēscere [3]: rise; increase; come to be:

• Semper crescis: you’re always growing [waxing]
• Aut decrescis: or you’re always decreasing [waning]

If you are interested in music, you may know the Italian term crescendo meaning that what you’re playing starts getting louder and the musical symbol for that (<) illustrates it.

If something is growing or decreasing, it is changing state.

Latin has a number of verbs which convey this idea and are known as inchoative.

Inchoative verbs (from Latin incohō ‘begin’), also known as inceptive verbs (Latin: incipiō ‘begin’) describe a change of state i.e. something becomes something else, for example it changes in size, shape, colour, appearance etc; in English this idea is very often expressed by the verbs ‘become’, ‘grow’, ‘turn’ and, commonly in speech ‘get’ together with an adjective:

• It’s getting dark.
• The leaves are turning brown.
• It’s growing warm now.

The same idea can also be expressed by English verbs such as ‘darkEN’, ‘lightEN’ where the suffix -en can have the same inchoative idea.

• It’s brightening up now. (It’s getting bright.)
• His face reddened. (His face turned red.)

These verbs also mark the beginning of an action:

• The sun is beginning to shine.
• The day is dawning.

What to look out for is -sc-

crēscō, crēscere [3]: increase

It’s still hiding in the croissant < crēscēns …

and it’s even more obvious in crescendo

calet: it’s warm / hot > calēSCit: it’s turning warm / hot

frīget: it’s cold > frīgēSCit: it’s getting cold

liquet: it is liquid > liquēSCit: it melts

lūcet: it shines; it’s dawning > lūcēSCit: the day is breaking

tenebrae [f. pl]: darkness > tenebrēSCit: it grows dark

tepet: it’s warm > tepēSCit: it’s growing warm

vespera, -ae [1/f]: evening > vesperāSCit: it’s becoming evening