incipient
in-SIP-ee-untadjMeaning just beginning to appear or develop, often as an early sign of trouble
Memory hook IN-SIP-ient: the first little SIP of trouble. A single drip from the ceiling is the first little sip of a leak. Fix it now, while the leak is still incipient, before the roof gives way.
Dad spotted the incipient leak while it was still a single drip.
In context The dentist caught the incipient cavity early, when it was only a tiny gray spot, and filled it before it could ever hurt.
Similar emerging, developing, early, beginning
Opposite full-blown, developed, mature
From Latin incipiens, “beginning,” from incipere (to begin): in + capere (to take).