The reforms carried out by Peter I, reflected not only in the military, economic and social life of Russia, but also in the language of those who inhabited it. In particular, the speech was enriched with various foreign borrowings. One of them is the verb "initiate." A synonym for this word in the Russian language is “to begin”. But still in the verb of German origin, which is so firmly included in our speech, there are semantic nuances that do not allow replacing it with the Russian equivalent. Initiate ... What does this mean? The meaning and use of this word is the topic of the article.
Origin
As already mentioned, the word "initiate" has German roots. What does this mean, what morphological trait indicates its origin? With the development of shipbuilding and other areas of activity, many foreign words penetrated into Russian speech, of which a significant part were German. The main sign that this verb is a loan from Goethe’s language is the suffix “irova”.
Judicial vocabulary
The following phrase can be found in the legal text: “Revision of the judicial act in this case must be initiated.” What does it mean? In the general sense, the verb “initiate” means to start something, give an impetus to the development of a process. Therefore, this word is used to determine the action that an individual takes by submitting an application for any procedure.
In articles on legal topics, there is also the use of this word in phrases that have become almost stable. For example, “any subject of economic relations has the right to initiate a bankruptcy proceeding.” What does it mean? If you “translate” this sentence into spoken language, you get: “Everyone can file for bankruptcy.” Therefore, the word “initiate” is a lexical unit that is not often found in oral speech, because its use is characteristic, first of all, of the official style.
Biology
In the text on botany, you can see the following sentence: "Ethylene is allocated to fruits, which can initiate flowering." What does it mean? Fruits secrete a chemical compound that causes the process of propagation of flowering plants. That is, “initiate” is a synonym not only for such words as “start”, “conceive”, but also “cause”, “cause a process”.
Another example of the use of the verb, which is discussed in this article: "The development of the egg cell is initiated by the male reproductive cell."
Culture
In the news of cinema, music and television, this verb also occurs. For example:
- "The singer’s heritage fund initiates the shooting of a biographical film about the life of Michael Jackson."
- "The governor initiated a social television project."
- "The mayor initiated a concert on the central square of the city with the participation of stars of state magnitude."
- "The publishing house initiated the publication of a book by a young author."
In the above examples, you can see another semantic connotation that the word “initiate” has. The meaning of this verb is to contribute to something, to contribute to something.
Initiate a scandal
This phrase is found in various contexts. And not in all its meaning is equivalent. If we are talking about an athlete who initiated a doping scandal, then the meaning of this verb is a matter of dispute. But often this phrase has a slightly different interpretation.Initiating a scandal means deliberately provoking someone into a conflict.
Initiate - fine-tune
An initiator is not just one who contributes to the development of a process. But whoever does this is planned, intentionally, not by chance. For example: "German agents initiated an uprising among the inhabitants of Kalmykia on a national basis." It follows from this proposal that the German special services were not just the main participants in the opposition movement, but organized a mutiny planned, guided by no means the desire to free the Kalmyk people from oppression. However, this shade is so subtle that if you replace the word “initiated” in the above sentence with “call”, the meaning will remain the same.
Derived Words
In Russian there is a noun “initiator”. It is easy to guess that this word defines the person who initiates the action, contributes to the conduct of any event. In a word - initiates. For example:
- "The initiator of the rebellion was caught and severely punished."
- "A prominent public figure initiated the theatrical production of the work of the great classic."
- "The initiator of the mass escape was sentenced to life imprisonment."
The root word is also the noun “initiation”. However, its meaning is completely different. Initiation is understood as a ritualistic rite, the purpose of which is the transition to a new stage within the framework of a certain social group of one of its participants. This word is of Latin origin. It goes back to the word initio, which also means “to begin,” “to conceive.” However, the German verb initiíeren comes from the same word.