Independent spirit stifled by talk, but begin (9)
I believe the answer is:
originate
'begin' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'independent spirit stifled by talk' is the wordplay.
'independent' becomes 'i'.
'spirit' becomes 'gin' (I've seen this before).
'stifled by' is an insertion indicator (I've seen this in other clues).
'talk' becomes 'orate' (orating is a kind of talking).
'i'+'gin'='igin'
'igin' inserted within 'orate' is 'ORIGINATE'.
'but' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for originate that I've seen before include "Come into existence" , "Invent" , "Launch" , "Stem" , "Found" .)