different between beginning vs imperfect

English

Alternative forms

• begynnynge (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: b?g?'n?ng, IPA^(key): /b????.n??/

Etymology 1

From Middle English biginning, beginninge, beginnunge, equivalent to begin +? -ing.

Noun

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.

   • 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.

Usage notes

"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)".

Synonyms

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

Antonyms

• (act of doing that which begins anything): conclusion, end

Derived terms

• a good beginning makes a good ending
• beginning of day
• in the beginning

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English begynnyng, bygynnynge, From Old English *beginnende (attested only as Old English onginnende), from Proto-Germanic *biginnandz, present participle of Proto-Germanic *biginnan? (“to begin”), equivalent to begin +? -ing.

Verb

beginning

1. present participle of begin

Adjective

beginning (not comparable)

1. (informal) Of or relating to the first portion of some extended thing.

   in the beginning paragraph of the chapter

   in the beginning section of the course

Translations

Synonyms

• first
• initial

English

Etymology

From Middle English imperfit, from Old French imparfit (modern French imparfait), from Latin imperfectus. Spelling modified 15c. to conform Latin etymology. See im- +? perfect.

Pronunciation

• (adjective, noun) IPA^(key): /?m?p??(?)f?kt/, /?m?p??(?)f?kt/
• (verb) IPA^(key): /?mp?(?)?f?kt/

Adjective

imperfect (comparative more imperfect, superlative most imperfect)

1. not perfect

   Synonyms: defective, fallible, faultful, faulty

   Antonyms: faultless, infallible, perfect
2. (botany) unisexual: having either male (with stamens) or female (with pistil) flowers, but not with both.

   Antonym: perfect

3. (taxonomy) known or expected to be polyphyletic, as of a form taxon.
4. (obsolete) lacking some elementary organ that is essential to successful or normal activity.
   • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, Twenty-five Sermons preached at Golden Grove; being for the Winter Half-year, "Christ's Advent to Judgment"

     He […] stammered like a child, or an amazed, imperfect person.

5. (grammar) belonging to a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

Related terms

• imperfection

Translations

Noun

imperfect (plural imperfects)

1. something having a minor flaw
2. (grammar) a tense of verbs used in describing a past action that is incomplete or continuous

   Synonym: preterimperfect

Derived terms

• imperfective

Translations

Verb

imperfect (third-person singular simple present imperfects, present participle imperfecting, simple past and past participle imperfected)

1. (transitive) to make imperfect
   • 1651, John Donne, Letter to Henry Goodere, in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour, edited by Charles Edmund Merrill, Jr., New York: Sturgis & Walton, 1910,^[1]

     I write to you from the Spring Garden, whither I withdrew my self to think of this; and the intensenesse of my thinking ends in this, that by my help Gods work should be imperfected, if by any means I resisted the amasement.

   • 1716, Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition edited by Samuel Johnson, London: J. Payne, 1756, Part I, p. 43,^[2]

     Time, which perfects some things, imperfects also others.

   • 1962, Alec Harman and Wilfrid Mellers, Man and His Music: The Story of Musical Experience in the West, Oxford University Press, Part I, Chapter 5, p. 126,^[3]

     […] such was their desire for greater rhythmic freedom that composers began to use red notes as well. […] Their value was […] restricted at first, for redness implies the imperfecting of a note which is perfect if black […]

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /imper?fekt/

Adjective

imperfect m or n (feminine singular imperfect?, masculine plural imperfec?i, feminine and neuter plural imperfecte)

1. imperfect

Declension

Antonyms

• perfect

Related terms

• imperfec?iune