incipit

[in-si-pit, ing-ki-pit]

noun

1. the introductory words or opening phrases in the text of a medieval manuscript or an early printed book.

2. Music.,  the first words of a chanted liturgical text, as that of a Gregorian chant or certain medieval motets.

incipit

/ ˈɪnkɪpɪt /

1. here begins: used as an introductory word at the beginning of some medieval manuscripts

Word History and Origins

Origin of incipit¹

1895–1900; < Latin: (here) begins, 3rd-person singular present of incipere

Example Sentences

Next to the name of the weaver’s apprentice were three ominous words: “Hic incipit pestis.”

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Like him, I began with only one sentence, the incipit of all further conversation.

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As some specific titles, especially in poetry, would have been used in works by multiple authors, it is also likely that some labels included an “incipit”—the first line of the work.

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When Beardsley created “Incipit Vita Nova,” he was not yet twenty years old.

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The impressive piece, ready to be installed at Newcastle upon Tyne's Castle Keep, is a modern tribute to the incipit of St John's Gospel in principio erat Verbum - "in the beginning was the Word."

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