Inaugurate from Latin inaugurāre = to install after consulting the birds. Roman augurs read bird-flight to determine divine approval. PIE *h₂ewg- (to increase) — same root as augment, august, auction, author, auxiliary. Every modern inauguration is a linguistic fossil of Roman bird-omen ceremonies.
To formally install someone in office or to begin something with a ceremony; to mark the beginning of a new venture or era.
From Latin inaugurāre ("to take omens from the flight of birds, to consecrate"), a compound of in- ("into, upon") and augurāre ("to act as an augur, to predict"), from augur ("a religious official who interpreted signs from birds"). The augur element likely derives from PIE *h₂ewg- ("to increase, augment"), though some scholars connect it with Latin avis ("bird") plus a verbal root meaning "to call out," making the augur literally "the bird-caller." The PIE root *h₂ewg- is extraordinarily productive: it yields Latin augēre ("to increase"), auctor ("originator"), auxilium ("help
Every US presidential inauguration is, etymologically, a bird-omen ceremony. Roman augurs watched the skies for the direction, number, species, height, and calls of birds to determine divine approval. Eagles and vultures were highest significance. A flight from the left was favourable. The word remembers priests standing