began

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈɡæn/
• (General American, US) IPA^(key): /bɪˈɡæn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æn
• Hyphenation: be‧gan

Verb

began

1. simple past of begin
2. (obsolete) past participle of begin
   • 1817 (date written), [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume IV, London: John Murray, […], 20 December 1817 (indicated as 1818), →OCLC, page 285:

     He had no sooner been free from the horror and remorse attending the first few days of Louisa’s accident, no sooner begun to feel himself alive again, than he had began to feel himself, though alive, not at liberty.

Derived terms

• beganst

Anagrams

• Bange, abeng, benga

Middle Dutch

Verb

began

1. first/third-person singular past indicative of beginnen

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *bigān. Equivalent to be- +‎ gān. Cognate with Old High German bigān.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beˈɡɑːn/

Verb

begān

1. to bego, go over, traverse; get to, come by, fall into
2. to go to, visit, care for, cultivate, affect
   • Se ðe æcer begǽþ. ― He who cultivates land (acre) … a farmer (Ælfc. Gr. 7; Som. 6, 44.)
3. to occupy, inhabit, dwell, surround, besiege, overrun
   • Hí ðone búr útan beeódon. ― They surrounded the dwelling outside. (Chr. 755; Th. 83, 26, col. 1)
4. to practise, do, engage in, perform, commit, exercise, attend to, be diligent about, honor, serve, worship, profess; pledge, devote, train oneself
   • He begǽþ unmǽtas ― He commits gluttonies. (Deut. 21, 20)
   • Begá ðé sylfne to árfæstnysse ― Train thyself to godliness. (1 Tim. 4, 7)

Conjugation

Conjugation of begān (irregular)

infinitive	begān	begānne
indicative mood	present tense	past tense
first person singular	begā	beēode
second person singular	begǣst	beēodest
third person singular	begǣþ	beēode
plural	begāþ	beēodon
subjunctive	present tense	past tense
singular	begā	beēode
plural	begān	beēoden
imperative
singular	begā
plural	begāþ
participle	present	past
	begānde	begān

Derived terms

• forebegān
• misbegān
• unbegān

Descendants

• Middle English: bigon, begon
  • English: bego

References

• John R. Clark Hall (1916) “begān”, in A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary‎^[1], 2nd edition, New York: Macmillan
• Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “begān”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.