I'm trying to remember a word for "nearly ready". It's one word, usually for something that needs just a little more work or time to go on to the next step. I can't remember the word I want to use, though! Gah!

Incipient? Germinal? Embryonic? Nascent?

beta?

quote:

Originally posted by tsuwm:
beta?

Or in the case of Microsoft, Version 6.0

Ooh, "beta" is very close, but not a computer-type word. Something like "raw"?

Raw? I don't mean to pry, but it might help to know what kind of nearly-ready stuff you thinking of and what its next step might be.

Say you're preparing bread dough, but the stuff in the bowl hasn't been kneaded well enough to be set out to rise--you'd need to work on it some more.

[nearly ready] bread dough

[nearly ready]

Green?

Hrmm... "green" is pretty close, too. I looked up some synonyms to "green" and found "visculent", but I haven't been able to find a proper definition of it online!

I looked up some synonyms to "green" and found "visculent"

Hmm, I cannot think what Latin word this can be a form of. Viscum is 'mistletoe', which I suppose is greenish. Callow seems pejorative. How about unfledged?

Do you think perhaps "visculent" is related to "viscous"?

I think my best bet for this is to just go with a simpler, more general word: "incomplete". That might be my best alternative.

Thank you, everybody!

"viscous"

English viscous < viscose < Late Latin viscosus < Latin viscum 'mistletoe, birdlime made from mistletoe berries'. I'm just not sure about the -l-. Seems to trace back to various thesauri sites, but it only gets a few hits in Google books. (It may be a new word for Kalleh to champion.)

"Imminent" might do, depending on the context.

This discussion reminds me of a conversation our Board had today about a half-baked idea.