begin

verb
/bɪˈɡɪn/

Etymology

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

  1. inherited from *biginnaną
  2. inherited from *biginnan
  3. inherited from beginnan
  4. inherited from beginnen

Definitions

  1. 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.
  2. To come into existence.

    • Vast chain of being! which from God began.
  3. Beginning

    Beginning; start.

    • In prayer, in the light, I see my kin / I touch my tree, my roots, my begin

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at begin. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01begin02step03advance04raised05leavened06leaven07rise

A definitional loop anchored at begin. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at begin

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA