começar

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Galician

Verb

começar (first-person singular present começo, first-person singular preterite comecei, past participle começado, reintegrationist norm)

  1. reintegrationist spelling of comezar

Conjugation

Related terms

References

  • começar” in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (2014).

Old Galician-Portuguese

Etymology

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre.

Pronunciation

Verb

começar

  1. to start

Conjugation

Descendants

  • Galician: comezar
  • Portuguese: começar

Further reading

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese começar, from Vulgar Latin *cominitiāre, from com- + Latin initiāre. Compare Galician comezar. It has been supposed that the Portuguese form developed via an unattested *comẽeçar, but this appears unlikely. The loss of /n/ was likely due to analogy with the synonym empeçar (cf. Spanish comenzar, diphthongally influenced by empezar).

Pronunciation

 
 

  • Hyphenation: co‧me‧çar

Verb

começar (first-person singular present começo, first-person singular preterite comecei, past participle começado)

  1. (intransitive) to start; to begin; to commence
    Synonyms: iniciar, principiar
    Antonyms: acabar, terminar
    Fique quieto, o filme já vai começar!Keep quiet, the movie is going to start soon!
  2. (transitive) to begin; to start to do
    Synonyms: iniciar, principiar
    Antonyms: acabar, terminar
    Vou começar a lição de inglês falando sobre verbos irregulares.I will start the English lesson talking about irregular verbs.
  3. (transitive) to start; to initiate (to cause something to begin)
    Synonyms: iniciar, inicializar
    Antonyms: acabar com, terminar, finalizar, fechar
    Aperte play para começar o vídeo.Press play to start the video.
    O acontecimento começou um debate sobre o crime.The occurrence started a debate about crime.
  4. (auxiliary with a or por (less common) and a verb in the impersonal infinitive) to begin
    Synonym: principiar
    Antonyms: terminar de, parar de
    Um pirralho começou a gritar.A brat began to scream / began screaming.
  5. (intransitive) to begin (to have a first experience)
    Synonym: principiar
    Antonym: terminar
    Não sei cozinhar ainda, mas comecei com alguns pratos simples.I don't know how to cook yet, but I started with some simple foods.

Conjugation

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:começar.

Related terms

Descendants

  • Makalero: komesa (to start)

References

  1. ^ Joan Coromines, José A. Pascual (1984) “comenzar”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), volumes II (Ce–F), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 157
  2. ^ Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “comĭnĭtiare”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 2: C Q K, page 944

Further reading