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Beginning. [Obs.] Chaucer.

pon 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.

amic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero. -- Absolute zero (Physics), the be ginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to -273º centigrade or -459.4º Fahrenheit.

A native of Acadie. Acadian epoch (Geol.), an epoch at the beginning of the American paleozoic time, and including the oldest American rocks known to be fossiliferous. See Geology. -- Acadian owl (Zoöl.), a small North American owl (Nyctule Acadica); the saw-whet.

A regularly recurring stress upon the tone to mark the beginning, and, more feebly, the third part of the measure.

Wanting the beginning. A false or acephalous structure of sentence. De Quincey.

n used to designate an act declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at the beginning of a new reign. -- Act of indemnity, a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties. Abbott. -- Act in pais, a thing done out of court (anciently, in the cou…

That part of the duration of a being or a thing which is between its beginning and any given time; as, what is the present age of a man, or of the earth

A triple prayer in the sacrifice of the Mass, beginning with the words "Agnus Dei."

The repetition of the same letter at the beginning of two or more words immediately succeeding each other, or at short intervals; as in the following lines: - Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved His vastness. Milton. Fly o'er waste fens and windy fields. Tennyson.

The first letter in the Greek alphabet, answering to A, and hence used to denote the beginning. In am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Rev. xxii. 13.

A prefix of one or two unaccented syllables to a verse properly beginning with an accented syllable.

A repetition of the last word or any prominent word in a sentence or clause, at the beginning of the next, with an adjunct idea; as, "He retained his virtues amidst all his misfortunes -- misfortunes which no prudence could foresee or prevent."

A repetition of a word or of words at the beginning of two or more successive clauses.

aulay. Angelic Hymn, a very ancient hymn of the Christian Church; -- so called from its beginning with the song of the heavenly host recorded in Luke ii. 14. Eadie.

A repetition of words beginning a sentence, after a long parenthesis; as, Shall that heart (which not only feels them, but which has all motions of life placed in them), shall that heart, etc.

The dropping of a letter or syllable from the beginning of a word; e. g., cute for acute.

The loss of a short unaccented vowel at the beginning of a word; -- the result of a phonetic process; as, squire for esquire. New Eng. Dict.

Shortened by dropping a letter or a syllable from the beginning of a word; as, an aphetic word or form. -- A*phet"ic*al*ly, adv. New Eng. Dict.

own origin, which was formerly ascribed to the apostles. It certainly dates back to the beginning of the sixth century, and some assert that it can be found in the writings of Ambrose in the fourth century. -- Apostle spoon (Antiq.), a spoon of silver, with the handle terminating in the figure of an apostle. One or mo…