extinct

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   No longer existing, with no living members left.

   Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.

2. 2
   adj

   Of a volcano: no longer active and unlikely ever to erupt again.

   Most of the volcanoes on this island are now extinct.

3. 3
   adj

   No longer existing or used, as of customs, ideas, or languages.

   Such old-fashioned ideas are now extinct in modern science.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Extinct entered English in late Middle English from Latin exstinguere, “to extinguish,” and initially meant “no longer alight.” It began to be applied to species that had died out in the late 17th century.

From Late Middle English extinct (“eliminated, eradicated, extinguished”), from Latin extīnctus, exstīnctus (“extinguished, quenched; destroyed, killed; made extinct”), the perfect passive participles of extinguō, exstinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench; (figurative) to abolish; to destroy, kill”), from ex- (prefix meaning ‘away; out’) + stinguō (“to extinguish, put out, quench”) (from Proto-Indo-European *stengʷ- (“to push”)). The Middle English word displaced Middle English aqueint, aquenched (“extinct; extinguished”). Doublet of extinguish.

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary