Etymologically
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beginnen

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Pronunciation

  • /bəˈɡɪnən/, [bəˈɡɪnən], [bəˈɡɪnn̩][1]

Forms

beginnen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present beginnt, past tense begann, past participle begonnen, past subjunctive begänne or begönne, auxiliary haben)[1] The past was originally begunde, begonde (so also Luther), and the reshaped weak form begonnte was still used in the 18th century by Gellert, Lessing, Wieland and Goethe.[2] The strong begann, now standard, already occurs in Early New High German.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German beginnen, inherited from Old High German biginnan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *biginnan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), formed with the prefix Proto-Germanic *bi- on a verb *ginnaną that occurs only with prefixes.[4][1][5] The prefixed verb is Old Saxon biginnan, Old Frisian biginna and Old English beginnan, and today Dutch beginnen and English begin.[4][5] With other prefixes the same verb appears in Gothic 𐌳𐌿𐌲𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (duginnan), Old High German inginnan, onginnan and Middle Dutch ontghinnen (“to cut into, begin”), and in the noun anagin (“beginning”).[5][6] The North Germanic languages have no form of it.[5]

Its further origin is uncertain, because the verb occurs only with prefixes and its original sense cannot be fixed.[4][7] Kluge, comparing anfangen, anpacken and Latin incipiō, thinks a basic sense “to seize” likely, and connects the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to seize”), usually nasalised as in Latin prehendō (“to seize”) and Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to hold, contain”).[4] The Grimms' revised dictionary also calls this the most probable explanation.[6] Pfeifer finds no secure etymology: he considers the Albanian word for “to begin, take hold of” and a root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰen-, the same nasalised root, or a word from a non-Indo-European substrate.[5] The Grimms' first edition took the simple verb to mean “to cut, split”, so that beginning was first “cutting into” something.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German biginnan is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses and in the Benedictine Rule, Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid, the Ludwigslied and Notker.[9][10] It meant “to begin, make a start”, “to undertake, attempt” and “to have a beginning”.[9][10] Weak past forms beside the strong ones are explained as modelled on kan “I can”, whose use was close to that of biginnan.[9]

Semantic evolution

Adelung called the verb obsolete in 1774, but it continued in the written language, while everyday speech prefers anfangen.[2] It could also mean “to do, set about”, as in asking what to do with someone.[2][11] The noun Beginn is recorded as Old High German bigin around 800, but only rarely, so that Middle High German begin may be a new formation from the verb.[5] The infinitive used as a noun, das Beginnen, stresses the action, as in Schottel's proverb Sich besinnen vor beginnen macht gewinnen.[2]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German biginnan is recorded.[9][4]
  • c. 800 – The noun bigin “beginning” appears.[5]
  • 16th century – Luther still uses the past begunde.[2]
  • 1774 – Adelung calls the verb obsolete.[2]
  • 18th century – The weak past begonnte still appears in Lessing and Goethe.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To begin, start something: einen Brief beginnen;[11][1] mit dem Training beginnen.[11][1]
  2. To do, go about something in a particular way: Was soll ich damit beginnen?[11][2]
  3. (intransitive) To have its start at a time or place: Das Konzert beginnt um acht.[11][1]

Word family

  • Beginn
  • Beginnen
  • Beginner
  • Anbeginn

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 102
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 4, 581
  7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1296
  9. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 346
  10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 127
  11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag