Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Commence

Com·mence′ (kŏm·mĕns′), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Commenced; p. pr. & vb. n. Commencing.] [F. commencer, OF. comencier, 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.

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’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.