ppl. a. Forms: 1 unbegunnen, 3 unnbigunnenn, 4 unbegunne (7 vn-), 6 vnbegon(ne, vnbegun, 7– unbegun. [UN-1 8 b. Cf. Du. onbegonnen, OHG. unbegunnen.]
1. That had no beginning; ever existent.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, I. 16. An ælmihtiʓ god æfre unbegunnen and unʓeændod.
c. 1200. Ormin, 18574. Forr eȝȝþerr iss wiþþutenn ord, & æfre all unnbigunnenn.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 275. The myhti god, which unbegunne Stant of himself.
1610. Healey, St. Aug., City of God, XII. xvii. 458. Hee needed none of these creatures,… hauing continued … blessed without them, from all vn-begunne eternity.
a. 1680. Charnock, Attrib. God (1834), I. 375. We were nothing from an unbegun eternity.
1872. Liddon, Elem. Relig., ii. 79. That unbegun, unending, self-existent Life; that boundless Intelligence,… what is He, our God, to us?
2. Not yet begun; not commenced.
1562. W. Wightman, Ep. Ded., in Phaer, Æneid (ed. 2), 1. He … promised to vse all hys possible diligence for the finishing of the other three bookes then vtterly vnbegonne.
a. 1568. Ascham, Scholem., II. (Arb.), 159. The other part of the head beyng hidden, the bodie and the rest of the members vnbegon.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lvi. § 5. A worke vnbegun is in the Artificer which afterward bringeth it into effect.
1706. Watts, Horæ Lyr., III. 266. Nations unborn, and ages unbegun.
1738. Gentl. Mag., VIII. 485/2. Therefore, tho’ more than half my days are done, My days of life are un-begun.
1812. Monthly Mag., XXXIV. 14. We prevent what is unbegun, we hinder what is unfinished.
1868. Mrs. Whitney, P. Strong, xvi. The smoothness of that which is unbegun.
