to incept
- verb
- /ɪnˈsɛpt/
- Archaic
- After three years of study, she was thrilled to incept and receive her diploma on stage.
Examples
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In medieval universities, students would incept after years of rigorous study.
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He will incept his master's degree next month.
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He was proud to incept at Oxford, marking the start of his academic career.
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Few people today use the term incept when referring to receiving a degree.
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Did she incept her PhD program this year?
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He plans to incept his degree at the university during the upcoming graduation ceremony.
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In the past, students would incept their studies with a formal ceremony to celebrate their admission.
Surface Forms
Morphology
incept = in + cept
The specialized, chiefly historical academic sense is not predictable from 'in' + 'cept' because 'cept' is not a standalone English word and the usage is domain-specific.
Etymology
Incept comes from the Latin incipere, where in- 'into' and capere 'to take' give the idea of being 'taken into'. In old universities to incept meant to be formally 'taken into' the group of degree holders, which is why it once meant to receive a degree.