The adjective proactive can describe a person who gets things done. If you are proactive, you make things happen, instead of waiting for them to happen to you. Active means "doing something." The prefix pro- means "before." So if you are proactive, you are ready before something happens.

Is proactive one word or two?

1 Answer. 'Proactive', and by extension proactively , are correct. Pro-active and pro-actively were the norm in the past, using pro as a prefix to active .

When was the word proactive first used?

pro- +‎ active; originally coined 1933 by Paul Whiteley and Gerald Blankfort in a psychology paper, used in technical sense.