Outset, onset, inception.

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,

Can you help me know the right use of these?

outset, onset, inception these are my examples, am I right?

  1. Madam advised us not to take this path from the onset.

  2. We were told from the outset of the book that no one should commit sin.

  3. They were assaulted at the inception of the building by the so-called land guards.
    By the way is inception only used to indicate the beginning or the construction of a building, an institution or a business?

Please, assist.

2

  1. “outset” is more likely there.

  2. OK.

  3. This is not impossible, but to my mind there is a slight mismatch between “inception”, which is quite an abstract word, and “assaulted”, which is a concrete word.

“inception” can be used with a variety of things, such as the ones you mention, as well as project/task, idea, transaction, etc. It is a fairly formal and, as I say, abstract word. You would never refer to the start of a meal as “the inception of breakfast”, for example.

3

Hi, Dozy it seems Im slightly bemused with inceptions’ usage.
You said is used for something abstruct. But project in your example is not an abstruct word to me.
To ask for better clarification, is outset only used to refer to the beginnings of a book but nothing else?

thanks.

4

Hi,
Just a few examples on the usage of ‘outset’:

  1. From the outset, Mrs Thatcher had the sense of being a political outsider 2) …we failed to join the Common Market at the outset. 3) From the outset of a study the picture can be developed simply by… 4) These issues have been important from the outset in London Docklands… 5) …especially at the outset of the campaign for independence 6) It is better to take this decision at the outset rather than have a poorly planned attempt backfire on the parents.
5

Hi Eugene.

But can I substitute, “onset” with “outset” in your examples? And still carry the same meaning?

6

It is usually fairly abstract. You cannot usually pick up an hold a project, for example.

7

You mean substitute “onset” for “outset”. The expressions “from the outset” and “at the outset” are much more common than “from the onset” and “at the onset”. In many cases it will not be very natural to substitute the latter for the former.

8

Examples of ‘onset’:

  1. …he spoke of ‘the last mighty blow to smash the enemy even before the onset of winter’. 2) My old English teacher, regretting that retired freedom had coincided with the onset of arthritis, leant on her stick and said: ‘Do things while you can.’ 3) onset of massive winds 4) before the onset of the disease 5) with the onset of man-made global warming