Beginning

Be*gin"ning, n.

1. 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. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Gen. i. 1.

2. That which begins or originates something; the first cause; origin; source. I am. . . the beginning and the ending. Rev. i. 8.

3. That which is begun; a rudiment or element. Mighty things from small beginnings grow. Dryden.

4. Enterprise. "To hinder our beginnings." Shak.

Syn.

-- Inception; prelude; opening; threshold; origin; outset; foundation.