Inculcate

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Inculcate

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Mar 13, 2015 11:12 pm

• inculcate •

Pronunciation: in-kêl-kayt, in-kêl-kayt • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: To thoroughly teach by frequent repetition or other strong measures; to firmly embed a concept in someone's mind.

Notes: Today's Good Word bears a slight tinge of pejorativity, though it may be used quite positively in the right context. It has produced a large and illustrious family of derivations: inculcator, someone who inculcates, inculcation, the process itself, while both inculcatory and inculcative serve as adjectives.

In Play: Inculcation implies very thorough training: "My mother inculcated good table manners in me so thoroughly that even today I cannot enjoy a meal if I see a salad fork inside the dinner fork." Inculcation also implies thorough, permanent learning: "I don't think anyone can inculcate Gladys Friday with the importance of coming to work on time and finishing out the day."

Word History: The pejorative sense of this Good Word comes from its Latin ancestor: inculcatus "forced upon", the past participle of inculcare "to force upon". This verb was created from the preposition in "in, on" + calcare "to trample, trounce", itself derived from calx (calc-s) "heel". (Teachers of old were much less restrained in their methods than today.) The root of the Latin word for "heel", kalk-, shows up in Lithuanian kulnas "heel", and a few others, but with no spectacular results. (We have thanked Mark Bailey, a Grand Panjandrum at the Alpha Agora, for Good Words like this one enough that our gratitude by this time should be well inculcated.)
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Slava
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Re: Inculcate

Postby Slava » Sun Feb 28, 2021 9:35 am

It can be positive if used in the right context, but that context really has to be clear. This seems to have been used negatively so much and for so long that, much like other words, it is almost always seen in such a light.

The inculcatory drumbeat of indoctrination is one phrase that comes easily to mind.
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