Begin
Pronunciation
- IPA: /bɪˈɡɪn/, /bəˈgɪn/
- Rhymes: -ɪn
Origin
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 *ghendhe/o ("to take") (compare Welsh genni ("to delve, submerge onself"), Latin prehendŠ(""), Albanian zë ("to catch"), Ancient Greek (chandánein, "to hold, contain")).
Full definition of begin
Verb
- (ambitransitive) 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. The program begins at 9 o'clock on the dot. I rushed to get to class on time, but the lesson had already begun.
- 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, The Celebrity Chapter 4, 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, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 5, 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.
- 2013-06-29, Unspontaneous combustion, 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 commence existence.
- Alexander Pope (1688-1744)Vast chain of being! which from God began.