begaan

• IPA^(key): /bəˈɣaːn/

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• Hyphenation: be‧gaan
• Rhymes: -aːn

From Middle Dutch begaen. Equivalent to be- +‎ gaan.

begaan

1. (transitive) to walk upon, to tread on

   Vanaf morgen kunnen ze de steigers begaan.

   They will be able to walk on the piers from tomorrow on.

2. (transitive, by extension) to move upon, to travel on

   De wegen hier zijn erg moeilijk te begaan.

   The roads over here are very difficult to travel upon.

3. (transitive) to commit (e.g. a misdeed)

   Wie van jullie heeft deze moord begaan?

   Which one of you has committed this murder?

4. (transitive, mostly with laten) to do, to act as one wills

• begaanbaar
• begane grond

• Afrikaans: begaan

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

begaan

1. past participle of begaan

From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan, from Proto-West Germanic *biginnan.

begaan

1. began
   • 1867, “JAMEEN QOUGEELY EE-PEALTHE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, line 4:

     Hea daffed his cooat, pidh it an a bushe, an begaan to peale a cooat, an zide,

     He took off his coat, put it on a bush, and began to beat the coat, and said,

• Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 110