Word to the Wise: Incipient
by ETR (04/2/2008)
Something that’s "incipient" (in-SIP-ee-unt) is just beginning to exist or appear. It is derived from the Latin for "in" + "to take."
Example (as used by Shena MacKay in The Artist’s Widow): "She sighed for him; so young, and yet so passe, and with an incipient beer belly."