by Kevin Burton
I believe it was the great Marty Brennaman, on the Cincinnati Reds radio network, who used to call the first game of a three-game series the “lid-lifter.”
Let’s tack that one on, at the very beginning mind you, like the first pitch in the top of the first inning, to Merriam-Webster Dictionary’s list of words about beginnings.
Also in my research, I have just learned that the theme song for the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour was called “This Is It.” I have always thought it was called “Overture.” We find out what overture means later on in the dictionary’s list.
By the way, Road Runner is way, way, way, way over-the top cool. Nevertheless, Bugs Bunny truly deserved top billing on the show.
“Pilot” is the word for the first show of what its writers hope will become a television series. That’s a beginning.
Then there’s “Beginnings” a top-ten smash in 1969 for the band Chicago. It’s a great tune, and I had heard it multiple dozens of times, when suddenly in 2011 or so I heard it as for the first time.
I really listened to the lyrics and knew in my heart, as demonstrated by the chills I got all over my body, that I would thenceforth and forever associate the song with my then bride-to-be Jeannette.
That was a beginning.
Finally, here’s some homework for you my good word people: there doesn’t seem to be a special word or phrase in English for a first date – other than, first date.
That is an oversight and a pretty bad one. A first date is a big, big deal and deserves its own word. So, wordsmiths, any ideas? (Don’t say lid-lifter!”) If so, please leave them in comments below. But for now, on to the Merriam-Webster list. On with the show, this is it!
Genesis
In the beginning, you might say, was genesis. The name given to the first book of the Old Testament describes the creation of Adam and Eve along with the earth and the heavens. The book even begins with the words “In the beginning,” making genesis the ne plus ultra, perhaps, of beginning words.
Genesis comes from the Greek gignesthai, meaning “to be born,” and can refer to the origin or beginning of anything from a heavenly body to an idea.
Commence
Commencer in French means “to begin.” We get our verb commence via Middle English and Anglo-French from a Latin word that was formed by combining com- (“with”) with initiare (“to begin”). Initiare is the root of our verb initiate. So even though they look nothing alike in English, commence and imitate have the same origin.
Interestingly, we use commencement to refer to the ceremony given to confer diplomas to those who have completed the requirements to graduate from a school. While that might seem like the end of one journey, it is for many the beginning of another, and commencement conveys that. In British English, commence can mean “to take a degree at a university.”
Square one
The use of square one to mean “the initial stage or starting point” might call to mind board games such as Chutes and Ladders, where certain penalties require a player to move their piece back to an earlier space on the board. Because of that, the idiom back to square one usually doesn’t have a positive meaning; rather, it’s about making a new attempt after a previous (usually prolonged) effort has failed.
Early uses of the phrase, from the 1950s, make reference to board games, though some scholars have attributed the origin of the phrase back to square one to how soccer games were announced over radio.
Preamble
The noun preamble is the name we give to the first section of the U.S. Constitution, the 52-word paragraph that begins “We the People” and lays out the purpose of the document that follows.
The amble in preamble comes from the Latin verb meaning “to walk” (as found in ambulance and ambulatory); the Late Latin praeambulus means “walking in front of.”
In broader use, preamble can refer to any introductory statement or section of a text, or a fact or circumstance from which other events follow.
Ab ovo
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Latin phrase ab ovo, meaning “from the egg,” might sound like it’s taking a position on answering that classic riddle. But ab ovo is actually part of a longer phrase written by the poet Horace: ab ovo usque ad mala, which translates to “from the egg to the apples.”
The phrase alludes to a pattern seen in Roman dining, that of starting a meal with eggs and finishing it with apples. It was an English writer, Sir Philip Sidney, who is credited with giving ab ovo a figurative application, referring to the beginning of an action.
Exordium
In a way similar to preamble, exordium denotes an introductory section to something written, usually a discourse or composition. It can also be used for the opening piece in a collection (as of poetry), usually one that sets the tone for what follows:
Foreword, preface, and prologue are other words used for the opening section of a text. Exordium derives from a Latin noun that combines the prefix ex- with ordiri, a verb meaning “to begin.”
Get-go
Get go (and idioms such as from/since the get-go) originated in African-American slang, with early uses dating from the 1960s attributed to writers such as Toni Cade Bambara.
Despite its slangy origin, from/since the get-go is now used by speakers of all backgrounds, even occasionally in formal writing. Its origin is uncertain, with phrases such as get going noted as a possible influence.
A phrase with a similar rhythm is from the word go, which calls to mind an official giving a signal to start a race. That phrase is much older than from the get-go, with evidence dating to the early 19th century.
Overture
An overture can be an introductory gesture or proposal, but in the field of music it’s the orchestral introduction to a dramatic work, such as an opera. The William Tell Overture, for example, opens Rossini’s opera by that name.
To make a non-musical overture to someone means to make an offer or suggestion to start talking or negotiating with someone, often someone you don’t know well or haven’t been talking to much until that point.
Even though it begins with over, and suggests a crossing over distances, overture is not related to over. Instead it was formed from a Vulgar Latin alteration of apertura, the word for an aperture or opening.
Incipient
Incipient has all of the credentials required to make this list, starting with the fact that it derives from the Latin verb incipere (“to begin”) and is related to incipit, a term that literally means “it begins” and which was used for the opening words of a medieval text. (Incipere also gives us our noun inception).
Early uses of the word occurred in scientific contexts, describing things (such as new species) just coming into being, though writers soon took to using the word for other things in early stages of development.
And that kids, is the end of the beginnings.
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