begin

Etymology

From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”) (compare West Frisian begjinne, Low German begünnen, Dutch and German beginnen), from a root *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan, Old Saxon andginnan and Dutch ontginnen, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take”) (compare Welsh genni (“to delve, submerge oneself”), Latin prehendō (“to grasp, nab”), Albanian zë (“to catch”), Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to hold, contain”)).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪˈɡɪn/, /bəˈɡɪn/, /biˈɡɪn/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪn

Verb

begin (third-person singular simple present begins, present participle beginning, simple past began, past participle begun)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To start, to initiate or take the first step into something.

   I began playing the piano at the age of five.   Now that everyone is here, we should begin the presentation.

   • John Locke (1632-1705)

     The apostle begins our knowledge in the creatures, which leads us to the knowledge of God.

   • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

     Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 5, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.

   • 2013 June 29, “Unspontaneous combustion”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8842, page 29:

     Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.

2. (intransitive) To be in the first stage of some situation

   The program begins at 9 o'clock on the dot.    I rushed to get to class on time, but the lesson had already begun.

3. (intransitive) To come into existence.
   • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

     Vast chain of being! which from God began.

Noun

begin (plural begins)

1. (nonstandard) Beginning; start.

References

• begin in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• begin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• being, binge

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bə.ˈɣɪn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧gin
• Rhymes: -ɪn

Noun

begin n (uncountable, diminutive beginnetje n)

1. start, beginning

Verb

begin

1. first-person singular present indicative of beginnen
2. imperative of beginnen

Anagrams

• benig

Noun

begin n

1. beginning, start
2. origin, source

Further reading

• “beghin (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• “begin”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929

Noun

begin (plural begins)

1. beginning