beginning

• begynnynge (obsolete)

• enPR: bĭgĭn'ĭng, IPA^(key): /bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/

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From Middle English biginning, beginninge, beginnunge, equivalent to begin +‎ -ing.

beginning (countable and uncountable, plural beginnings)

1. (uncountable) The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states.
2. That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
3. That which begins or originates something; the source or first cause.

   What was the beginning of the dispute?

4. The initial portion of some extended thing.

   The author describes the main character’s youth at the beginning of the story.

   That house is at the beginning of the street.

   • 1871, The Antiquary, volumes 1-2, page 13:

     To mark this absolutism of change over the works of man is both pleasing and profitable, for what is more emotional than to observe the hoarness, the mellowness, and the natural final decay of objects whose beginnings date almost from the immemorial […] ?

   • 1975, Frances Keinzley, The Cottage at Chapelyard, page 179:

     “Is anything the matter?” Lady Lindstrom asked anxiously.
     “No,” Megan told her. “I’m merely trying to decide where the beginning is.”
     “Perhaps at the beginning,” the Chief Constable prompted, rather stupidly, Megan thought.
     “Which beginning?” she asked.

“In the beginning” is an idiomatic expression that means “at first, initially”; it does not mean the same as “at the beginning”.

The meaning of “at the beginning” is clear from its parts. This expression is used to refer to the time when or place where something starts; it is used to refer to points in time and space and also to fairly long periods of time and fairly large extents of space. (“At the beginning of the story” can be used to refer to both the first few sentences and to the first chapter or chapters. “At the beginning of the trail” can be used to refer to both the first few meters and the first part of a trail, which can be quite substantial, even a fifth or fourth or more.)

The originally rare and traditionally deprecated usage of “in the beginning of” (instead of “at the beginning of”) has become more common but is still ignored by most dictionaries and other authorities or labeled as unidiomatic or incorrect. Interestingly, there is only rarely confusion between the parallel expressions “in the end” and “at the end (of)”.

• (act of doing that which begins anything): commencing, start, starting
• (that which is begun; rudiment or element): element, embryo, rudiment
• (that which begins or originates something): origin, source, start, commencement
• (initial portion of some extended thing): head, start

• (antonym(s) of “act of doing that which begins anything”): conclusion, end

• (at or from the very beginning): from the get-go, off the bat, out of the chute, out of the gate

From Middle English begynnyng, bygynnynge, From Old English *beginnende (attested only as Old English onginnende), from Proto-Germanic *biginnandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), equivalent to begin +‎ -ing.

beginning

1. present participle and gerund of begin

   He is beginning to read a new book.

   • 1918, W B Maxwell, chapter VII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o’clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers’ barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one’s eyes ache, the men’s voices grated harshly, and the girls’ faces saddened one.

beginning (not comparable)

1. (informal) Of or relating to the first portion of some extended thing.

   in the beginning paragraph of the chapter

   in the beginning section of the course

• first
• initial