in-KOH-it
The inchoate plan lacked specifics but hinted at an innovative new direction.
Fun Fact
“Inchoate” comes from the Latin inchoare, meaning “to begin.” It’s often used in legal contexts (like an inchoate crime) or in creative and scientific fields when an idea is still forming. Think of a sketch before it becomes a painting or a startup’s rough pitch before full launch.
SUR-fit
(noun) An excessive amount of something, often to the point of disgust or discomfort.
The holiday season left him with a surfeit of goodwill and absolutely no energy — too many parties, too many conversations, too many people he genuinely liked but couldn’t face for one more evening.
Surfeit derives from the Old French surfait, meaning “excess,” built from sur- (“over” or “above”) and faire (“to do”) — literally “overdone.” It entered English in the 14th century, initially used almost exclusively in medical contexts to describe the physical consequences of overeating or overdrinking — conditions so common in medieval feast culture that physicians had developed elaborate treatments for them. Over time it broadened into its modern sense of any excess so overwhelming it tips from pleasure into discomfort.
Fun Fact
Medieval English physicians classified surfeit as a genuine medical condition with its own treatment protocols — a patient who had eaten or drunk to excess would be prescribed everything from induced vomiting to cold compresses to elaborate herbal purges. Henry VIII, whose legendary appetite is well documented, reportedly suffered from surfeit-related illness multiple times throughout his reign. The royal court employed physicians specifically to manage the consequences of feasting on a scale that modern nutritionists would find genuinely alarming — a entire medical specialty born directly from the intersection of extreme wealth and total absence of restraint.
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