com·mence

commence [Date: 1300-1400; from Latin com- ( COM-) + initiare 'to begin'] 拉丁语里com-是together, with的意思。

initialize算是个新词(1957年):

initialize (v.)
"to make ready for operation," 1957, from initial (adj.) + -ize. The same formation had been used earlier to mean "use initials [the first letters of a name in order] instead of a name" (1837); "designate by initials" (1833).

• His initials are DPH: they stand for David Perry Hallworth.
• 'Can I have your initial, Mr Davies?' 'It's G, Mr G Davies.'
• George Bernard Shaw [萧伯纳] was well-known by his initials GBS.

换种说法：The difference between initialize and initiate is that initialize is to assign initial values to something while initiate is to begin; to start. 比如：

// screen surface, the place where everything will get print onto
SDL_Surface *screen = NULL; // assign initial value
void init(){
    // initialize SDL video. If there was an error SDL shows it on the screen
    if ( SDL_Init( SDL_INIT_VIDEO | SDL_INIT_AUDIO) < 0 ) ...
    screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(640, 480, 16, SDL_DOUBLEBUF);
...
bool done = false; // assign initial value
init();
SDL_FillRect(screen, 0, SDL_MapRGB(screen->format, 255, 0, 0));
while (!done)
...
/*
SDL_Init() simply forwards to calling SDL_InitSubSystem(). Therefore, the two may be used interchangeably. 
Though for readability of your code SDL_InitSubSystem() might be preferred.

The file I/O (for example: SDL_RWFromFile) and threading (SDL_CreateThread) subsystems are initialized by default.
Message boxes (SDL_ShowSimpleMessageBox) also attempt to work without initializing the video subsystem, in hopes of
being useful in showing an error dialog when SDL_Init fails. You must specifically initialize other subsystems if 
you use them in your application.

Logging (such as SDL_Log) works without initialization, too.
*/

David Bowie - Ground Control To Major Tom Lyrics (lyricsmania.com) lyrics: 歌词。mania: 迷/狂/控

Ground control to major [少校] Tom
Ground control to major Tom
Take you protein pills and put your helmet on
Ground control to major Tom
Commencing countdown, Engine's on
Check ignition
And may God's love be with you
...

六级/考研单词: commence, designate, verb, differentiate, initiate, assign, void, thereby, thread, default, dialog, log, lyric, helmet, countdown, ignite

标签：...,screen,initial,initialize,mence,SDL,com,assign
来源： https://www.cnblogs.com/funwithwords/p/16539267.html