(n.) Beginning; commencement.
(n.) A source, or origin; that from which anything proceeds;
fundamental substance or energy; primordial substance; ultimate
element, or cause.
(n.) An original faculty or endowment.
(n.) A fundamental truth; a comprehensive law or doctrine,
from which others are derived, or on which others are founded; a
general truth; an elementary proposition; a maxim; an axiom; a
postulate.
(n.) A settled rule of action; a governing law of conduct; an
opinion or belief which exercises a directing influence on the life and
behavior; a rule (usually, a right rule) of conduct consistently
directing one's actions; as, a person of no principle.
(n.) Any original inherent constituent which characterizes a
substance, or gives it its essential properties, and which can usually
be separated by analysis; -- applied especially to drugs, plant
extracts, etc.
(v. t.) To equip with principles; to establish, or fix, in
certain principles; to impress with any tenet, or rule of conduct, good
or ill.
