English Online Dictionary. What means began? What does began mean?
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, UK) IPA(key): /bɪˈɡæn/
- (General American, US) IPA(key): /bɪˈɡæn/
- Rhymes: -æn
- Hyphenation: be‧gan
Verb
began
- simple past of begin
- (obsolete) past participle of begin
Derived terms
- beganst
Anagrams
- Bange, abeng, benga
Middle Dutch
Verb
began
- 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
- to bego, go over, traverse; get to, come by, fall into
- 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.)
- to occupy, inhabit, dwell, surround, besiege, overrun
- Hí ðone búr útan beeódon. ― They surrounded the dwelling outside. (Chr. 755; Th. 83, 26, col. 1)
- 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
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.