initiate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin initiātus, the past participle of initiō (“to begin; to admit to sacred rites”),^[2][3][4][5] with the verb suffix -ate.^[2][6] In classical Latin the verb meant only "to instruct in mysteries or sacred knowledge"; the sense "to begin" is Late Latin.^[3] It is formed on initium (“a beginning, an entrance”), in the plural initia "elements; sacred mysteries", from ineō (“to go into, enter upon”),^[3][7] the source of initial;^[2] that verb is in- (“into”) + eō (“to go”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *ei- (“to go”).^[3][7] Some English uses are a back-formation from initiation.^[3][2] initier is recorded from the 14th century.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To admit someone with due rites into a society or into secret knowledge: 1603, in Philemon Holland's translation of Plutarch's Moralia;^[4][2] the sense "to begin, set going" follows in 1604, in Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall.^[4][2] Merriam-Webster dates the sense "to begin" to 1533,^[8] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English place the verb in the mid 16th century.^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

The two senses, admitting someone into a group or a body of knowledge and starting something, have run side by side since the first records.^[4][3] Johnson (1755) gave only the first, "to instruct in the rudiments of an art; to put into a new society".^[10] The past participle used as an adjective, "initiated", is recorded from about 1600;^[3][4] Shakespeare's "the initiate fear" in Macbeth is the fear of a beginner.^[4][10] From this adjective came the noun, a person who has been initiated, recorded from 1732 in Etymonline;^[3] the OED and Barnhart first find it in 1811, in Coleridge.^[4][2] It later also came to mean simply a beginner or novice.^[4][11] The intransitive senses "to take the first step" (1725, in Pope's Odyssey) and "to undergo initiation" (1896) are later.^[4]

Timeline

• 1533 – to begin, set going (Merriam-Webster).^[8]
• 1603 – to admit with rites into a society or secret knowledge.^[4][2]
• 1604 – to begin, originate.^[4][2]
• c. 1600 – adjective, initiated.^[3]
• 1725 – to take the initiative.^[4]
• 1811 – noun, a person who has been initiated.^[4][2]
• 1896 – to undergo initiation.^[4]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To begin or set something going: The council initiated a review of local bus routes.
2. To admit someone into a club, society or other group, often with special ceremonies.
3. To introduce someone to the basic knowledge of a subject or activity: He was initiated into chess by his grandfather.

Noun

1. A person who has been initiated, especially recently.
2. A beginner or novice.

Adjective

1. Initiated; admitted, or begun.

Word family

• initiator
• uninitiated
• reinitiate
• uninitiate

Related words

• initial
• initialism
• initialize
• initiation
• initiative
• commence

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins