begin

From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from be- + base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan.

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

• Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ɪn

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.

   • a. 1705, John Locke, “An Examination of P[ère] Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC, paragraph 41, page 175:

     The Apoſtle begins our Knowledge in the Creatures, which lead us to the Knowledge of God, if we will make uſe of our Reaſon: [...]

   • 1712 (date written), Alexander Pope, “Messiah. A Sacred Eclogue, in Imitation of Virgil’s Pollio.”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, H. Lintot, J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, and S. Draper, published 1751, →OCLC, page 37, lines 1–2:

     Ye Nymphs of Solyma! begin the ſong: / To heav'nly themes ſublimer ſtrains belong.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 48:

     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.
   • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

     Vast chain of being! which from God began.

• commence
• initiate
• start

begin (plural begins)

1. (nonstandard) Beginning; start.

• “begin”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “begin”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Bengi, being, beïng, binge

• IPA^(key): /bəˈɣɪn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧gin
• Rhymes: -ɪn

From Middle Dutch begin, from Old Dutch *bigin, *bigen, from Proto-Germanic *biginnaz (“beginning”), from Proto-Germanic *biginniną (“to begin”). Compare Old Dutch anagen, anagenni (“beginning”).

begin n (uncountable, diminutive beginnetje n)

1. start, beginning

• aanvang
• start

• Negerhollands: begin

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

begin

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

• benig

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

begin n

1. beginning, start
2. origin, source

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

• Dutch: begin
• Limburgish: begin

• “beghin (I)”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929), “begin”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, →ISBN

begin (nominative plural begins)

1. beginning