An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/beginnen
beginnen, verb ‘to begin,’ from the equivalent Middle High German beginnen, Old High German beginnan; it corresponds to Goth duginnan, Anglo-Saxon â-, be-, on-ginnan, English to begin, Old Low German biginnan, with a similar meaning. This verbal stem, which appears at an early period only in a compound form, is based upon a pre-Teutonic to-, bhi-kenwô, with permutation of k to Teutonic g. For the Aryan root ken compare Old Bulgarian po-čĭną (infinitive po-čęti), ‘to begin,’ konĭ, ‘beginning.’