Sunday Word: Inculcate

[sallymn]

inculcate [in-kuhl-keyt, in-kuhl-keyt]

verb:
1 to implant by repeated statement or admonition; teach persistently and earnestly (usually followed by upon or in)
2 to cause or influence (someone) to accept an idea or feeling (usually followed by with)

Examples:

Pacific Recycling Foundation Chief Executive, Amitesh Deo says the launch of the pilot project is the beginning of inculcating proper waste management practices in the communities. (Praneeta Prakash, Pilot project launched to inculcate proper waste management, FBC News, November 2022)

Why would one raise the child in high style in Marrakesh, Morocco - with distinguished music instructors, Savile Row tailoring and lessons at the Royal Tennis Academy - and why scrupulously inculcate in her aristocratic standards of excellence and generosity? (Julius Taranto, 'The English Understand Wool' is a little gift to Helen DeWitt fans, Washington Post, September 2022)

Dawkins, author of bestseller The God Delusion, was quoted as saying: "I think it's rather pernicious to inculcate into a child a view of the world which includes supernaturalism - we get enough of that anyway." (Matthew Weaver, You can call me a big bad wolf but not a bore, says Richard Dawkins, The Guardian, June 2014)

But until now, researchers assumed that vertebrates were the only worrywarts among the world’s diverse life forms. (Thomas Inman, Ancient Faiths And Modern)

If they inculcate virtue, it is that theological virtue whose inutility we have sufficiently shown. (Paul Henri Thiry Holbach, Letters To Eugenia)

Origin:

'enforce or stamp upon the mind,' especially by admonitions or forcible statement, 1540s, from Latin inculcatus, past participle of inculcare 'force upon, insist; stamp in, impress, tread down,' from in- 'in' (from PIE root en 'in') + calcare 'to tread, press in,' from calx 'heel' (Online Etymology Dictionary)

Inculcate derives from the past participle of the Latin verb inculcare, meaning 'to tread on.' In Latin, inculcare possesses both literal and figurative meanings, referring to either the act of walking over something or to that of impressing something upon the mind, often by way of steady repetition. It is the figurative sense that survives with inculcate, which was first used in English in the 16th century. Inculcare was formed in Latin by combining the prefix in- with calcare, meaning 'to trample,' and ultimately derives from the noun calx, 'heel.' (Merriam-Webster)