Past tense of initialize; to set up a computer system, program, or variable with starting values or conditions.
From initial + -ize + -ed, where 'initial' comes from Latin initialis 'of the beginning,' from initium 'beginning.' The computing sense developed in the 1960s as computers required explicit setup procedures.
In computing, initialization is like waking up and getting dressed - the computer needs to know its basic settings before it can do anything useful. The moment you turn on your device, thousands of variables are being initialized in milliseconds!
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