Writer starts to pen ornate English (3)
I believe the answer is:
poe
'writer' is the definition.
(Edgar Allan Poe)
'starts to pen ornate english' is the wordplay.
'starts to' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'pen ornate english' is 'POE'.
(Other definitions for poe that I've seen before include "Fall of House of Usher author" , "Name of writer" , "Edgar Allan . . ., American writer of creepy stories" , "Edgar Allan . . ., writer of spooky tales" , "The Raven writer" .)