Other forms: initiated, initiating, initiates
To initiate is a formal word for setting something in motion. Initiate proceedings, initiate a review, initiated by the council.
It belongs to official writing; start and begin do the job elsewhere. It also means to admit somebody formally into a group with a ceremony: initiated into the society. As a noun, an initiate is somebody newly admitted. Note initiation, which covers both the starting and the ceremony; and initiative, which means both a new scheme and the quality of acting without being told.
1verbinitiateTo set something in motion.
“The government initiated an inquiry into the collapse of the bridge.”
synonyms: launch, begin
2verbadmitTo admit somebody formally into a group.
“New members were initiated into the club in a secret ceremony.”
initiate is a beginning or admitting.
Also accepted in games: launch, begin
Latin initiare means to begin or to admit to a mystery, from initium, a beginning — in- plus ire, to go. The two English senses were both there in Latin, which had the same double life.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁ey-
Latin
initiātus
English, today
initiate
Built from
Latin initiātus, perfect passive participle of initiō (“to begin, originate”) (see -ate), from initium (“a beginning”) + -ō, from initus (“an entrance, coming in, approach”) + -ium, from ineō + -tus, from in- + eō (“to go”). Cognate with French initier.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA