Onset

Onset

Noun · /ˈɒn.set/

Definition

The beginning or start of something, especially something unpleasant; the initial stage of a disease, condition, or process; an attack or assault (archaic).

Origin

From on (in the direction of) + set (a setting, a placing — from Old English settan, to set). The compound first appearing in the sixteenth century with both the sense of an attack or assault — the physical onset of troops — and the sense of a beginning or start. The attack sense being now archaic or literary; the beginning sense being the dominant modern usage, especially in medical and psychological contexts: the onset of symptoms, the onset of winter, the onset of a crisis.