英和和英

発音

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/
• (India) IPA: /bɪ.ɡɘ.nɪŋɡ/
• ハイフネーション: be‧gin‧ning

語源 1

From 中期英語 biginning, beginninge, beginnunge, equivalent to begin +‎ -ing.

名詞

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 […] ?

   • 1972, Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren, How to Read a Book, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 25:

     Basic skills are introduced at this time, such as the use of context or meaning clues and the beginning sounds of words.

   • 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.

使用する際の注意点

“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)”.

同意語

• (act of doing that which begins anything): commencing, start, starting, genesis
• (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

反意語

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

派生語

参考

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

語源 2

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

動詞

beginning

1. present participle and gerund of begin

   He is beginning to read a new book.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] 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.

形容詞

beginning (not comparable)

1. (informal) Being the first portion of some extended thing.

   in the beginning paragraph of the chapter

   in the beginning section of the course

同意語

• first
• initial