Begun

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bɪˈɡʌn/

Definitions

1. Indicating that an action or process has been started or commenced
2. Used to show that something has already been initiated or put into motion
3. Expressing that the beginning phase of an event or activity has taken place

Etymology: The past participle "begun" is simply the form of "begin" that English uses after "have" and "be," as in "they have begun" or "the war was begun." Its roots run deep: "begin" descends from Old English "beginnan," which combined the prefix "be-" with a verb "ginnan," a word for starting or opening that survives in Old English "onginnan," the direct ancestor of the modern verb's sense of setting out on something. The Old English verb was itself built from a prefix and a base, and the same pattern held across the wider Germanic family, where the older Proto-Germanic form "biginnaną" carried the same meaning of starting. That shared ancestry means "begin" and its relatives in other Germanic languages are cousins rather than borrowings from Latin or French.

Synonyms: started, initiated, commenced

Antonyms: ended, finished