استأنفهُ

and ↓ ايءتنفهُ [written with the disjunctive alif اِيتَنَفَهُ] (assumed tropical:) He took [its أَنْف, i. e.,] the first of it: (M:) he began it, or commenced it: (S, ↓ M, Msb, K: *) or i. q. اِسْتَقْبَلَهُ [which has also the latter of the two significations mentioned above, (Mgh in article قبل,) and moreover signifies he anticipated it; and from what follows here, it seems to be probable that this last signification, as well as the other, may be meant by it in this instance]: (T, M:) namely, a thing, (M, Msb,) or an affair. (T.) You say, استأنفهُ بِوَعْدٍ (assumed tropical:) He made him a promise in anticipation; without his asking it of him. (M.) And, of a woman, اُسْتُوءْنِفَتْ بِالنِّكَاحِ أَوَّلًا (assumed tropical:) [She was just married, or bedded, for the first time]. (M.) See also أُنُفٌ, last sentence.

[Hence, حَرْفُ اسْتِيءْنَافٍ, in grammar, An inceptive particle, placed at the commencement of a new proposition grammatically independent of that which precedes it.]