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Origin and history of choate

choate(adj.)

"finished, complete," a mistaken or humorous back-formation from inchoate (q.v.) as though that word contained in- "not." It is pointed to in an 1878 letter from Oliver Wendell Holmes lamenting barbarisms in legal case writing (he said he found choate in a California report), and it is used in a South Carolina Supreme Court case from 1871 (Massey vs. Duren) as the opposite of inchoate. But non-legal use seems to have been mostly jocular:

Companion Gouley is entirely correct ; for this particular U.D. is not only not inchoate, but he is so terribly choate that, not content with being finished himself, he proceeds with great zeal and unction to finish everybody else. ["Proceedings of the Grand Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons of Canada," 1874]

Entries linking to choate

inchoate(adj.)

"recently or just begun," 1530s, from Latin inchoatus, past participle of inchoare, alteration of incohare "commence, begin," probably originally "to hitch up," traditionally derived from in- "in" (from PIE root *en "in") + a verb from cohum "strap (fastened to the oxen's yoke)," a word of obscure origin. De Vaan says that as incohere "is a frequent verb, ... its meaning can easily have derived from 'to yoke a plough to a team of oxen' ..., in other words, 'to start work.' Thus, there might be a core of truth in the ancient connection of cohum with a yoke."

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    "unaccompanied, solitary; without companions," c. 1300, a contraction of all ane, from Old English all ana "unaccompanied, all by oneself," literally "wholly oneself," from all "all, wholly" (see all) + an "one" (see one). It preserves the old pronunciation of one. Similar compou
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    Old English bisig "careful, anxious," later "continually employed or occupied, in constant or energetic action" cognate with Old Dutch bezich, Low German besig, but having no known connection with any other Germanic or Indo-European language. Still pronounced as in Middle English
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    "well done!," 1761, from Italian bravo, literally "brave" (see brave (adj.)). Earlier in English it was a noun meaning "desperado, hired killer" (1590s). The superlative form is bravissimo. It is held by some philologists that as "Bravo!" is an exclamation its form should not ch
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    late 14c., compounen, "to put together, to mix, to combine; to join, couple together," from Old French compondre, componre "arrange, direct," and directly from Latin componere "to put together," from com "with, together" (see com-) + ponere "to place" (see position (n.)). The une
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    "opaque white fluid secreted by mammary glands of female mammals, suited to the nourishment of their young," Middle English milk, from Old English meoluc (West Saxon), milc (Anglian), from Proto-Germanic *meluk- "milk" (source also of Old Norse mjolk, Old Frisian melok, Old Saxon

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