initiative

i-NISH-uh-tiv/ɪˈnɪʃətɪv/

Pluralinitiatives (some meanings)

6 meanings of initiative

1
noununcountable
The ability to act first or on one's own, before or without being prompted by others.
The young officer was praised for taking the initiative during the rescue.
Employees who show initiative tend to advance faster than those who wait for instructions.
Similarenterprise, drive, resourcefulness, lead
Oppositepassivity
2
nouncountable
A new development or fresh approach: a new way of dealing with a problem.
The government announced an ambitious initiative aimed at reducing childhood poverty.
Several community initiatives sprang up to support struggling local farmers.
Similarplan, scheme, program, project, measure
3
nounusually singular
A beginning or first move in some course of action.
The ceasefire came about through the initiative of neutral mediators.
He seized the initiative early in the negotiations and set the agenda.
Similarlead
4
nouncountable
A proposed law or issue placed on the ballot for a public vote after gathering enough signatures from voters.
The 2020 initiative legalized recreational cannabis across the state.
Backers gathered half a million signatures to qualify their tax initiative for November.
Similarmeasure, proposition
Note
Politics gives the word a precise job: the measure begins with the voters themselves, not with the legislature. A petition gets it onto the ballot, and the petition must meet a set threshold of signatures. That is why the name fits: the public makes the first move. Campaigners gather signatures to qualify an initiative, and voters then pass or reject it.
5
adjectiveUS
Of a state or jurisdiction: allowing voters to bring proposed laws to the ballot directly.
Oregon's initiative system lets residents propose legislation through signature drives.
Many western initiative states adopted the process during the Progressive Era.
Note
A label from American writing on direct democracy, where it sorts jurisdictions into two kinds: initiative states and noninitiative states, the opposite written closed up as one word. It only ever stands before a noun and does not compare, since one state cannot be more initiative than another. Its meaning comes from the ballot measure: an initiative state is one where such measures can reach voters.

Less common meaning

6
adjectivearchaic
Serving to begin or set something in motion.
suspected! that indefinite word, which was tortured into every meaning of injustice and oppression, and became what the French call the mot de ralliement, the initiative term of captivity and death
1795, Helen Maria Williams, Letters Containing a Sketch of the Politics of France
Similarintroductory, preliminary, initiatory, inceptive
Note
An adjective that keeps the word's Latin shape: Medieval Latin initiativus, "serving to initiate," ultimately from Latin initium, "beginning." It stands before a noun and marks a first instance. Dickens, in Martin Chuzzlewit (1844), calls a young cook's first attempt at cookery "that initiative dish." The usage now reads as archaic. A modern writer reaching for it usually wants initiatory, introductory or preliminary instead.

Practice

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Origin

From French initiative, from Medieval Latin *initiativus ('serving to initiate'), which traces back through Late Latin initiare ('to begin') to Latin initium ('beginning') and the verb ineo ('enter, begin').