The word inaugurate has its roots in the Latin term meaning "to practice augury." In ancient Rome, a select few priests were charged with observing the flight and feeding of birds in order to discover signs of the future. Such observations were known as auguries, and the practitioners of this art as augurs. For a few hundred years, the now-obsolete augurate meant "to make an augury." Presumably (although some may wonder), it was the ceremonial connotation of auguring and not its foretelling aspects that ushered inaugurate into print in English in 1606 with the meaning "to induct into an office with suitable ceremonies."