Forms: 4 comence, com(m)enci, 5 comens, 5–7 commense, 4– commence. Also ME. syncopated form COMSE, cumse. [ME. comence, a. OF. cumencer, comencer, = Pr. comensar, -char, Sp. comenzar, Pg. começar, It. cominciare, OIt. comenzar:- late Lat. type *cominitiāre (whence comintiāre, cominzāre), f. com- intensive + initiāre to begin (in Milanese inzà): see INITIATE. The doubling of the m in mod. F. and English is etymologically erroneous. Already in the 12th c. it was construed in OF. as trans., intr., and with à, and so it appears in Eng. from the first. The word is precisely equivalent to the native begin (which was however originally intr.); begin is preferred in ordinary use; commence has more formal associations with law and procedure, combat, divine service, and ceremonial, in which it continues earlier Anglo-French use.]
1. trans. To begin (an action); to enter upon; esp. in legal use, to commence an action, a suit, proceedings, etc.
1314. Guy Warw. (A.), 2008. Þat fiȝt he wil comenci.
15[?]. New Not-broune Mayd. But I commence Afore clemence, For man myne accyon.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. i. 4. New broils To be commenc’d in Stronds a-farre remote.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 151 (R.). All actions which may or shall be commenced by occasion of the sayd goods arrested.
1696. Tate & Brady, Ps. civ. 23. Commencing with the Sun his Toil.
1814. Southey, Roderick, VIII. Commencing his adventurous flight.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), i. ii. 160. In May, the proceedings were commenced.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xi. 291. On the following morning we commenced the ascent of Mont Blanc.
b. with vbl. sb. in -IT.
1797. Coleridge, Biog. Lit. (1847), II. 314. He commenced being a severe and ardent student.
1850. D. G. Mitchell, Reveries of a Bachelor, 159. I commence crying aloud.
a. 1873. Mill, Autobiog., 9. I commenced learning Latin.
c. with ordinary object (before which some vbl. sb. may be supplied).
1765. T. Amory, Mem. (1769), II. 75. That she may commence the joy of angels and of blessed spirits beforehand.
1873. Newman, in H. W. Wilberforce, Ch. & Emp. (1874), 6. He alse took measures for commencing a new church at Lower Walmer.
2. intr. with infin. To begin to do anything [OF. cumencer à].
c. 1320. Orfeo, 247. Thei it commenci to snewe and frese.
c. 1325. Lai le Freine, 264. And comenced to loue hir anon-right.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 155. To ask, to guess, to know, as they commence, As Fancy opens the quick springs of Sense.
1817. W. Beloe, Sexagenarian, I. 161. He accordingly commenced, after examination of the library, to transcribe the titles of such as he should like to possess.
1824. Landor, Wks. (1853), I. 146. The barbarians have commenced … to furbish their professions and vocations with rather whimsical skirts and linings.
1842. F. E. Paget, Milford Malvoisin, 129. I am beyond measure vexed and annoyed,—and will commence to-morrow morning to put the Schools on a different footing, and introduce the new system.
1858. Sat. Rev., V. 270/2. The landholders … commenced to plunder indiscriminately. Ibid. (1859), VIII. 315/2. Dr. Hill, the translator of Theophrastus, and Wallerius, the Swedish mineralogist, commenced in the last century to read the old names by a new light.
1868. Helps, Realmah, i. (1876), 3. And now I shall commence to tell who I am.
1871. Lytton, Coming Race (ed. 6), 139. Commenced to exist.
1875. Jevons, Money, 48. The Russian government … commenced to coin it.
¶ This construction has been objected to by stylists, who prefer begin before to.
cf. 1862. Marsh, Eng. Lang., viii. 127, note. Commence is used by good writers only as a transitive verb, and as such requires the participle or participial noun, not the infinitive, after it.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. Eng., 215. It is no more good English than his [Lytton’s] ‘commenced to exist,’ at p. 139 of the same work [The Coming Race].
1876. Miss Yonge, Womankind, vi. 40. ‘I shall begin to write to my mother,’ is infinitely better than ‘I shall commence to write home,’ which is not grammatical, since commence ought to be followed by a noun instead of an infinitive, and home is not an adverb. ‘I shall commence my letter to my mother,’ is grammatical, but has a sound of affectation.
3. intr. To make a start or beginning; to come into operation.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 986. Þan comencede a batail newe bytwene þes hostes two.
1599. Shaks., Phœnix & T., 21. Here the anthem doth commence.
1697. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 217. The act for regulating priviledg’d places being to commence the 1st of May.
1742. Pope, Dunc., IV. 63. But soon, ah soon, Rebellion will commence, If Music meanly borrows aid from Sense.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 66. Hostilities were now to commence.
1876. Green, Short Hist., ii. 106. The fabric of our judicial legislation commences with the Assize of Clarendon.
b. with complement, expressing vocation, status, etc.: To begin to be or with being; to start or set up as; to become. arch. (Cf. the complemental construction with 4, which may be earlier.)
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St. (1841), 99. Young scholars … commence schoolmasters in the country.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 10. Any man may commence Heretique per saltum.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Akenside. He first commenced physician at Northampton.
1834–47. Southey, Doctor (1849), 33/2. The time … when pig is to commence bacon.
1873. F. Hall, Mod. Eng., 103. It is far too common, now-a-days, for young men, directly on being made free of a magazine, or of a newspaper, to commence word-coiners.
1883. A. Dobson, Fielding, 5. Who had already commenced poet as an Eton boy. [For additional quots. and references see F. Hall, Rec. Exemplif. False Philol. (1872), 38–9.]
c. with adj. complement. Also of things. ? Obs.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 187, ¶ 1. We are still at a Loss how we afterwards commence eternal.
1771. Wesley, Wks. (1872), VI. 28. The wandering thoughts … then commence sinful.
c. 1772. J. Fletcher, Fifth Check, Wks. 1795, III. 266. When faith gives over working … it commences a dead faith.
a. 1800. W. Jones, Theol. & Misc. Wks., I. 145. He, too, is thenceforward to commence infallible.
4. [transl. med.L. incipere.] To take the full degree of Master or Doctor in any faculty at a University. Often with complement, to commence M.A., etc. (See also INCEPT, LICENTIATE.)
(At Cambridge, sometimes used of Bachelors, and in the sense of ‘to be admitted to the title of the degree after passing the examination, and before inauguration.’)
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 259. By a statute of the universite of Oxenford whan eny man is i-congyed þere to commence in eny faculte.
1388. Wyclif, Prol., xiii. 51. He … that hath comensid in art, and hath ben regent tweyne ȝeer aftir.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 2. This is mi year to commens master of art.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 68 (1810), 65. He … read Aristotle in the University of Cambridge, where he commenced doctor.
1654. S. Ashe, Fun. Serm. (1656), 50. Having commenced Bachelor of Arts.
1660. Gauden, Brownrig, 156. The University thought itself did then commence when Mr. or Dr. Brownrig was invested with any degree of honour.
1682. Vernon, Life Heylyn, 57. In which year Mr. Heylyn commenc’d his Degree of Doctor in Divinity.
1714. R. Long, in J. W. Clark, Cambridge (1890), 81. To rig ourselves out, in order to see the Doctors commence.
1731. T. Cox, Magna Brit., VI. 225/2. Wadham College … where he commenced Master of Arts.
1775. Johnson, West. Isl., Aberdeen. Whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately commence doctor.
1830. Bp. Monk, Bentley (1833), I. 10. Bentley commenced Bachelor of Arts.
† b. trans. To admit to a degree. Also absol.
1567. R. Mulcaster, Fortescue’s De Laud. Leg. (1572), 109. Why in the same [i.e., English law] none are commenced Bachelors and Doctors, as in other faculties.
1588. R. Parke, trans. Mendoza’s Hist. China, 95. To commence or graduate such students as haue finished their course. Ibid., 97. The day appointed … for to commence or giue degrees.
c. fig.
c. 1430. Freemasonry, 556. Through hye grace of Crist yn heven, He commensed yn the syens seven.
1579. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. iii. 125. Learning [is] a meere Hoord of Gold … till Sack commences it, and sets it in act and vse.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Elder Brother, I. ii. Come, doctor Andrew, without disputation, Thou shalt commence i’ th’ cellar.
1660. C. Ellis, Gentile Sinner, 225. Very many of our English Gentlemen do thus Commence (as it were) and take Degrees in Ignorance and Vanity.
† 5. To commence to, into: to begin to grow or develop to or into. Also b. trans. Obs.
a. 1500. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 280. To the honoure of Ectour that he myȝte comens.
1661. Glanvill, Van. Dogm., 74. It may be well reckon’d among the bare Possibilities which never commence into a Futurity.
1681. Whole Duty Nations, 20. He founds his Worship … first in Abrahams Family, and from thence commences it into a National State.
