inaugurate (v.)

To inaugurate is to install someone in office, or to open something formally. The word comes from the Latin inaugurare, built on augur.¹²

An augur was a Roman priest who read the will of the gods in birds: how they flew, how they fed, what they called. The job was to find out whether the gods approved of a thing being started at all. It was not a way of predicting what would happen.¹²

So a man was inaugurated — installed once the birds had been consulted and the answer was yes. Nothing of consequence was begun without it.²

Presidents are still inaugurated. The birds dropped out of the ceremony and stayed in the word.¹

The new building was inaugurated in May.