ab initio

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The Word of the Day for April 20 is: 

ab initio   \ab-uh-NISH-ee-oh\   adverb
     : from the beginning

Example sentence:
     "Under Pennsylvania law, a life-insurance policy that would have been 
issued at a higher premium if the insured had supplied the correct smoking 
information was void ab initio...." (_The National Law Journal_, March 4, 1991)

Did you know?
     We'll tell you right from the beginning where "ab initio" comes from! This 
adverb was adopted at the end of the 16th century directly from Latin, and it 
translates, unsurprisingly, as "from the beginning." ("Initio" is a form of the 
noun "initium," meaning "beginning," which gave rise to such English words as 
"initial," "initiate," and "initiative.") "Ab initio" frequently appears in 
legal contexts, as in our example sentence. Recently, people have also begun 
using "ab initio" as an adjective meaning "starting from or based on first 
principles" (as in "predicted from ab initio calculations").





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