began

English[edit]

began

simple past tense of begin
(obsolete) past participle of begin
- 1817 December, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Persuasion; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. […], volume IV, London: John Murray, […], 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.

began

From be- +‎ gān. Cognate with Old High German bigān.

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 of begān (irregular)

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