start

Etymology 1

From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.

noun

1. The beginning of an activity.
   The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
2. A sudden involuntary movement.
   He woke with a start.
   The sight of his scared face, his starts and pallors and sudden harkenings, unstrung me […] 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, Olalla
3. The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.
   Captured pieces are returned to the start of the board.
4. An appearance in a sports game, horserace, etc., from the beginning of the event.
   Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.
   Wilshere, who made his first start for England in the midweek friendly win over Denmark, raced into the penalty area and chose to cross rather than shoot - one of the very few poor selections he made in the match. February 12, 2011, Ian Hughes, “Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolverhampton”, in BBC
5. (horticulture) A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later.
   You generally see nursery starts at garden centres in mid to late spring. Small annual plants are generally sold in four-packs or larger packs, with each cell holding a single young plant. 2009, Liz Primeau, Steven A. Frowine, Gardening Basics For Canadians For Dummies
6. An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.
   to get, or have, the start
7. (UK, slang, archaic) A happening or proceeding.
   “It's a rum start, old John Madingley's coming down to Tunnleton,” said Grafton, one evening in the smoking-room; […] 1887, Hawley Smart, A False Start, volume 2, page 69

Etymology 2

From Middle English sterten (“to leap up suddenly, rush out”), from Old English styrtan (“to leap up, start”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturtijan (“to startle, move, set in motion”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter- (“to be stiff”). Cognate with Old Frisian stirta (“to fall down, tumble”), Middle Dutch sterten (“to rush, fall, collapse”) (Dutch storten), Old High German sturzen (“to hurl, plunge, turn upside down”) (German stürzen), Old High German sterzan (“to be stiff, protrude”). More at stare.

verb

1. (transitive) To begin, commence, initiate.
   1. To set in motion.
      to start a stream of water; to start a rumour; to start a business
      I was some years ago engaged in conversation with a fashionable French Abbe, upon a subject which the people of that kingdom love to start in discourse. April 2, 1716, Joseph Addison, Freeholder No. 30
   2. To begin.
      Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting. 2013-07-19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30
   3. To ready the operation of a vehicle or machine.
      to start the engine
   4. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
   5. To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
      Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start. 1674, William Temple, letter to The Countess of Essex
2. (intransitive) To begin an activity.
   The rain started at 9:00.
   Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ ….” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
3. (intransitive) To have its origin (at), begin.
   The speed limit is 50 km/h, starting at the edge of town.
   The blue line starts one foot away from the wall.
4. To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
   1. (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
      … The tempest's mocking elf Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf He strikes on, only when the timbers start. 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXXI
   2. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
   3. (transitive) To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.
      The hounds started a fox.
   4. (intransitive) To flinch or draw back.
      Physical poison would make them start from arsenicked bread; shall not the moral poison which is in it, make them start more promptly still from slave produce? 1836, Elizur Wright, Quarterly Anti-slavery Magazine, volume 2, page 162
   5. (transitive) To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.
      to start a bone; the storm started the bolts in the vessel
5. (intransitive) To break away, to come loose.
6. (transitive, sports) To put into play.
   The charge against Zagallo then is not so much that he started Ronaldo, but that when it should surely have been clear that the player was in no fit state to take part he kept him on. 2010, Brian Glanville, The Story of the World Cup: The Essential Companion to South Africa 2010, London: Faber and Faber, page 361
7. (transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
   to start a water cask
8. (intransitive, euphemistic) To start one's periods (menstruation).
   Have you started yet?

noun

1. An instance of starting.

Etymology 3

table From Middle English stert, start (“tail, handle, projection”), from Old English steort, stert, from Proto-West Germanic *stert, from Proto-Germanic *stertaz (“tail”). Cognate with Scots start, stairt (“side-post, shaft, upright post”), Dutch staart (“tail”), German Sterz (“tail, handle”), Swedish stjärt (“tail, arse”).

noun

1. A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
2. A handle, especially that of a plough.
3. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
   The fall of water is 6 feet, and the radius of the curve is 8 feet, from the centre of the water-wheel to the extreme point of the start. 1845, Captain R.E. Crawley, Description of a Water-Course, Wharf, and Water-Wheel, erected at Waltham Abbey, Essex[…]
4. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.