begin
See also: Begin
English
Etymology
From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from a base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to take”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bɪˈɡɪn/, /bəˈɡɪn/, /biˈɡɪn/
Audio (UK) (file) Audio (US) (file) Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɪn
Verb
begin (third-person singular simple present begins, present participle beginning, simple past began, past participle begun)
- (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.
- (Can we date this quote?) John Locke
- The apostle begins our knowledge in the creatures, which leads us to the knowledge of God.
- (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
- 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.
- (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.
- (intransitive) To come into existence.
- (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
- Vast chain of being! which from God began.
- (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope
Translations
to start, to initiate or take the first step into something.
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of a thing, to be in the first stage of something
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References
- begin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- begin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
Dutch
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bəˈɣɪn/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: be‧gin
- Rhymes: -ɪn
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutch begin. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the main entry.
Middle Dutch
Etymology
Inflection
This noun needs an inflection-table template.
Further reading
- “beghin (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
- “begin”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, 1929
Volapük
Declension
declension of begin
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
nominative | begin | begins |
genitive | begina | beginas |
dative | begine | begines |
accusative | begini | beginis |
vocative 1 | o begin! | o begins! |
predicative 2 | beginu | beginus |
- 1 status as a case is disputed
- 2 in some later, non-classical Volapük only
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