Do you like initiative, how do we love it? Initiative is great. Rumor has it that she is the foundation of a successful career, big money, a happy family and other pleasant things. And this is partly true. But we will talk about a verb that is directly connected with a noun, and we will answer the question, initiate - that is what it means.
Origin of the noun
Before talking about the difficult fate of the initiative in Russia (practically about its adventures), we must tell you where the word came from, how the concept took shape. The noun and verb are separated. The noun is in the etymological dictionary, and the verb is only in the dictionary of foreign words. Understanding where the noun came from will deepen our understanding of the content of the verb. So to the point.
Comes from the Latin initium (beginning). It came to us in the XIX century and remained forever. The debate is about which language served as a guide - German or French. Initiative is the first step to action, the impulse to it.
Value
And now, to smoothly switch from a noun to a verb, we will talk about the fate of the initiative in Russia. Our initiative is a difficult question. Because at first there was a peasant community, then collective farms. Therefore, in our country, "we" have always prevailed over the "I". No wonder we have a saying or a proverb that initiative is punishable.
How does this relate to the question: what does initiate mean? Everything is very simple. Only a person who already has power and authority can initiate something. The evolutionary changes coming from below, something unimaginable in the literal sense of the word for our realities. In the West, it’s different, that is, one can probably make a career there only thanks to one’s mind and perseverance, but we would not rule out tricky games and bosses who don’t want to change anything in the system. But one thing is clear: in the West, "I" prevails over "we", just like ours, a similar trend has a historical basis.
Now we are ready to reveal the meaning of “initiate”:
- Excite a chain chemical or nuclear reaction by externally acting on a system (physical or chemical term).
- To contribute to the emergence, development of something, to act as the initiator of something.
Naturally, people use mainly the second value, the first remains at the mercy of professionals.
suggestions
We understood what it means to initiate. It's time to see what examples of use can be:
- I know that my boss suspects me of wasting company funds. It was he who initiated the investigation to bring me to clean water! But I'm not guilty!
- The boss is the person who initiates all the changes: only the higher authorities are listening to him. The main thing is that he sometimes asks us, ordinary employees, what we like and what not.
- It is difficult to initiate changes to the system because there are too many links in it. For revolution or evolution, an order from above is needed.
- When it is necessary to initiate the reconstruction of the inner world, a person is only responsible for such an operation. Of course, there are events in the external world that provoke personality changes, but the last decision always remains with the subject of transformation.
The proposals turned out to be official, but this fully reflects the nature of the object of study. Rarely will anyone use the verb in use in everyday life.
Synonyms
And an important (but not the main) element of our narrative that crowns the program is synonyms for “initiate”. Let's give a list for convenience:
- inspire;
- to excite;
- start off;
- conceive;
- undertake.
That’s all that comes to mind, that’s almost all that the dictionary of synonyms offers. This is not to say that there is where to roam. But words that are difficult to replace live in the language. Our case is just that, whether we want it or not. The question of initiating is what it means, exhausted.