extermination

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English exterminacioun,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Latin exterminātiō (“expulsion, banishment”),^[5][3][2] which in Late Latin also meant annihilation or destruction.^[4][6] It is the noun of action of exterminō (“to drive out, expel, drive beyond the boundaries”),^[5][3] later "to destroy",^[3] the source of exterminate.^[5][6] Etymonline derives the Latin verb from the phrase ex termine (“beyond the boundary”), from ex (“out of”) and termen (“boundary, limit, end”);^[3] the OED and the American Heritage Dictionary relate it to terminus (“boundary-line, boundary marker”).^[5][7] The OED notes that only the sense "drive out" is found in classical Latin, the sense "destroy" first appearing in the Vulgate and in French.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Expulsion or banishment from a country: about 1475, in a document against the Yorkists dated to 1459.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to the mid-15th century, in the sense of repulsion.^[3] The OED's first quotation is from Caxton's Eneydos (1490), where it is used for "ending, termination".^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the Latin sense of driving out: banishment from a country or community, which lasted until the mid-17th century,^[5][6][2] and which Merriam-Webster still records as obsolete.^[4] From about 1550, in the Complaynt of Scotland, it took the sense of utter destruction, putting an end to something, which became the main meaning;^[5][3][6] Merriam-Webster says the Middle English word was influenced in meaning by the Latin verb.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "destruction; excision", quoting Bacon on "the displanting and extermination of people".^[8] In 18th-century mathematics it was used for elimination.^[5][6] After the Second World War, extermination camp (1945) named the Nazi camps built for mass murder.^[5][6]

Timeline

• c. 1475 – expulsion or banishment from a country.^[2]
• 1490 – ending, termination, in Caxton.^[5]
• c. 1550 – utter destruction, total extirpation.^[5][3]
• 1753 – in mathematics, elimination.^[5][6]
• 1945 – extermination camp.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of killing off a group of people or animals completely; total destruction or eradication: the extermination of rats from the island.^[4][6][5]
2. extermination camp: a concentration camp built for the mass killing of people, especially by Nazi Germany.^[5][6]
3. (obsolete) Banishment, expulsion (1586–1664).^[5][6][4]

Related words

• exterminate
• exterminator
• terminate
• terminus
• term

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.