Com*mence" (?), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Commenced (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Commencing.] [F. commencer, OF. commencier, fr. L. com- + initiare to begin. See Initiate.]
1.
To have a beginning or origin; to originate; to start; to begin.
Here the anthem doth commence.
Shak.
His heaven commences ere the world be past.
Goldsmith.
2.
To begin to be, or to act as.
[Archaic]
We commence judges ourselves.
Coleridge.
3.
To take a degree at a university.
[Eng.]
I question whether the formality of commencing was used in that age.
Fuller.
© Webster 1913.
Com*mence", v. t.
To enter upon; to begin; to perform the first act of.
Many a wooer doth commence his suit.
Shak.
⇒ It is the practice of good writers to use the verbal noun (instead of the infinitive with to) after commence; as, he commenced studying, not he commenced to study.
© Webster 1913.