diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 38bb0df50134e..4bc1c5c37c8ec 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -44,9 +44,6 @@ New language features
   * Values for `Enum`s can now be specified inside of a `begin` block when using the
     `@enum` macro ([#25424]).
 
-  * `a[begin]` can now be used to address the first element of an integer-indexed collection `a`.
-    The index is computed by `firstindex(a)` ([#23554]).
-
 Language changes
 ----------------
 
diff --git a/doc/src/manual/functions.md b/doc/src/manual/functions.md
index 0664f6f758f98..fc3aaa87dd938 100644
--- a/doc/src/manual/functions.md
+++ b/doc/src/manual/functions.md
@@ -692,8 +692,8 @@ the results (see [Pre-allocating outputs](@ref)). A convenient syntax for this i
 is equivalent to `broadcast!(identity, X, ...)` except that, as above, the `broadcast!` loop is
 fused with any nested "dot" calls. For example, `X .= sin.(Y)` is equivalent to `broadcast!(sin, X, Y)`,
 overwriting `X` with `sin.(Y)` in-place. If the left-hand side is an array-indexing expression,
-e.g. `X[begin+1:end] .= sin.(Y)`, then it translates to `broadcast!` on a `view`, e.g.
-`broadcast!(sin, view(X, firstindex(X)+1:lastindex(X)), Y)`,
+e.g. `X[2:end] .= sin.(Y)`, then it translates to `broadcast!` on a `view`, e.g.
+`broadcast!(sin, view(X, 2:lastindex(X)), Y)`,
 so that the left-hand side is updated in-place.
 
 Since adding dots to many operations and function calls in an expression
diff --git a/doc/src/manual/interfaces.md b/doc/src/manual/interfaces.md
index 3e19bbf93357c..1ca83709c9587 100644
--- a/doc/src/manual/interfaces.md
+++ b/doc/src/manual/interfaces.md
@@ -161,8 +161,8 @@ julia> collect(Iterators.reverse(Squares(10)))' # transposed to save space
 |:-------------------- |:-------------------------------- |
 | `getindex(X, i)`     | `X[i]`, indexed element access   |
 | `setindex!(X, v, i)` | `X[i] = v`, indexed assignment   |
-| `firstindex(X)`         | The first index, used in `X[begin]` |
-| `lastindex(X)`           | The last index, used in `X[end]` |
+| `firstindex(X)`      | The first index                  |
+| `lastindex(X)`        | The last index, used in `X[end]` |
 
 For the `Squares` iterable above, we can easily compute the `i`th element of the sequence by squaring
 it.  We can expose this as an indexing expression `S[i]`. To opt into this behavior, `Squares`
@@ -178,9 +178,8 @@ julia> Squares(100)[23]
 529
 ```
 
-Additionally, to support the syntax `S[begin]` and `S[end]`, we must define [`firstindex`](@ref) and
-[`lastindex`](@ref) to specify the first and last valid
-index, respectively:
+Additionally, to support the syntax `S[end]`, we must define [`lastindex`](@ref) to specify the last
+valid index. It is recommended to also define [`firstindex`](@ref) to specify the first valid index:
 
 ```jldoctest squaretype
 julia> Base.firstindex(S::Squares) = 1
diff --git a/doc/src/manual/strings.md b/doc/src/manual/strings.md
index 1f0339864fe3d..2f680f7b4b41f 100644
--- a/doc/src/manual/strings.md
+++ b/doc/src/manual/strings.md
@@ -168,9 +168,6 @@ julia> """Contains "quote" characters"""
 If you want to extract a character from a string, you index into it:
 
 ```jldoctest helloworldstring
-julia> str[begin]
-'H': ASCII/Unicode U+0048 (category Lu: Letter, uppercase)
-
 julia> str[1]
 'H': ASCII/Unicode U+0048 (category Lu: Letter, uppercase)
 
@@ -183,8 +180,8 @@ julia> str[end]
 
 Many Julia objects, including strings, can be indexed with integers. The index of the first
 element is returned by [`firstindex(str)`](@ref), and the index of the last element
-with [`lastindex(str)`](@ref). The keywords `begin` and `end` can be used inside an indexing
-operation as shorthand for the first and last index along the given dimension.
+with [`lastindex(str)`](@ref). The keyword`end` can be used inside an indexing
+operation as shorthand for the last index along the given dimension.
 Most indexing in Julia is 1-based: the first element of many integer-indexed objects is found at
 index 1. (As we will see below, this does not necessarily mean that the last element is found
 at index `n`, where `n` is the length of the string.)
@@ -203,7 +200,7 @@ julia> str[end÷2]
 Using an index less than 1 or greater than `end` raises an error:
 
 ```jldoctest helloworldstring
-julia> str[begin-1]
+julia> str[0]
 ERROR: BoundsError: attempt to access "Hello, world.\n"
   at index [0]
 [...]
diff --git a/src/julia-syntax.scm b/src/julia-syntax.scm
index 86890b5557364..aef2a8485da17 100644
--- a/src/julia-syntax.scm
+++ b/src/julia-syntax.scm
@@ -86,11 +86,11 @@
 (define (expand-compare-chain e)
   (car (expand-vector-compare e)))
 
-;; return the appropriate computation for a `begin` or `end` symbol for indexing
+;; return the appropriate computation for an `end` symbol for indexing
 ;; the array `a` in the `n`th index.
 ;; `tuples` are a list of the splatted arguments that precede index `n`
 ;; `last` = is this last index?
-;; returns a call to, e.g., lastindex(a) or last(axes(a,n))
+;; returns a call to lastindex(a) or last(axes(a,n))
 (define (end-val a n tuples last)
   (if (null? tuples)
       (if (and last (= n 1))
@@ -101,31 +101,20 @@
                                  tuples))))
             `(call (top last) (call (top axes) ,a ,dimno)))))
 
-(define (begin-val a n tuples last)
-  (if (null? tuples)
-      (if (and last (= n 1))
-          `(call (top firstindex) ,a)
-          `(call (top first) (call (top axes) ,a ,n)))
-      (let ((dimno `(call (top +) ,(- n (length tuples))
-                          ,.(map (lambda (t) `(call (top length) ,t))
-                                 tuples))))
-            `(call (top first) (call (top axes) ,a ,dimno)))))
-
-;; replace `begin` and `end` for the closest ref expression, so doesn't go inside nested refs
-(define (replace-beginend ex a n tuples last)
+;; replace `end` for the closest ref expression, so doesn't go inside nested refs
+(define (replace-end ex a n tuples last)
   (cond ((eq? ex 'end)                (end-val a n tuples last))
-        ((eq? ex 'begin)              (begin-val a n tuples last))
         ((or (atom? ex) (quoted? ex)) ex)
         ((eq? (car ex) 'ref)
          ;; inside ref only replace within the first argument
-         (list* 'ref (replace-beginend (cadr ex) a n tuples last)
+         (list* 'ref (replace-end (cadr ex) a n tuples last)
                 (cddr ex)))
         (else
          (cons (car ex)
-               (map (lambda (x) (replace-beginend x a n tuples last))
+               (map (lambda (x) (replace-end x a n tuples last))
                     (cdr ex))))))
 
-;; go through indices and replace the `begin` or `end` symbol
+;; go through indices and replace the `end` symbol
 ;; a = array being indexed, i = list of indices
 ;; returns (values index-list stmts) where stmts are statements that need
 ;; to execute first.
@@ -144,17 +133,17 @@
                   (loop (cdr lst) (+ n 1)
                         stmts
                         (cons (cadr idx) tuples)
-                        (cons `(... ,(replace-beginend (cadr idx) a n tuples last))
+                        (cons `(... ,(replace-end (cadr idx) a n tuples last))
                               ret))
                   (let ((g (make-ssavalue)))
                     (loop (cdr lst) (+ n 1)
-                          (cons `(= ,g ,(replace-beginend (cadr idx) a n tuples last))
+                          (cons `(= ,g ,(replace-end (cadr idx) a n tuples last))
                                 stmts)
                           (cons g tuples)
                           (cons `(... ,g) ret))))
               (loop (cdr lst) (+ n 1)
                     stmts tuples
-                    (cons (replace-beginend idx a n tuples last) ret)))))))
+                    (cons (replace-end idx a n tuples last) ret)))))))
 
 ;; GF method does not need to keep decl expressions on lambda args
 ;; except for rest arg
@@ -1511,8 +1500,7 @@
         (idxs (cddr e)))
     (let* ((reuse (and (pair? a)
                        (contains (lambda (x)
-                                   (or (eq? x 'begin)
-                                       (eq? x 'end)
+                                   (or (eq? x 'end)
                                        (eq? x ':)
                                        (and (pair? x)
                                             (eq? (car x) ':))))
@@ -1527,7 +1515,7 @@
 
 (define (expand-update-operator op op= lhs rhs . declT)
   (cond ((and (pair? lhs) (eq? (car lhs) 'ref))
-         ;; expand indexing inside op= first, to remove "begin", "end", and ":"
+         ;; expand indexing inside op= first, to remove "end" and ":"
          (let* ((ex (partially-expand-ref lhs))
                 (stmts (butlast (cdr ex)))
                 (refex (last    (cdr ex)))