Other forms: inaugurated, inaugurating, inaugurates
To inaugurate is to install somebody formally into high office. Inaugurate the president, inaugurate a new era, formally inaugurated.
It also means to open something grand or to begin an era, which is the looser use. The Latin is remarkable: to inaugurate was to consult the birds, since Roman augurs read omens before any office was filled.
1verbinaugurateTo install somebody formally into high office.
“The new president will be inaugurated in January.”
inaugurate is an installing.
Latin inaugurare means to take omens, from augur, a priest who read the flight of birds.
Latin
inaugurātus — having been taken as an omen, divined; having been approved, consecrated, or inaugurated on the basis of omens; installed, having been installed
English, today
inaugurate
Borrowed from Latin inaugurātus (“having been taken as an omen, divined; having been approved, consecrated, or inaugurated on the basis of omens; installed, having been installed”) (the perfect passive participle of inaugurō: see etymology 1). See -ate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA