extinguish

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin exstinguō (“to quench, put out; to wipe out, obliterate”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} also spelled extinguō,^[2][5][4] with the ending -ish.^[2][8][5][9] Barnhart stresses that it was borrowed directly from Latin and not formed from the stem of a Middle French verb, as abolish and banish were.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from ex-, either "out"^[4][5][7] or intensive,^[2][3] and stinguō (“to quench”).^[2][3][4][5] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate the latter to instīgō (“to urge on”),^[5][10] and Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary to Proto-Indo-European *steig- (“to prick, stick, pierce”), the sense "quench" having apparently evolved from that.^[4][3] From the past participle exstinctus comes extinct;^[11][8] distinguish is compared.^{[8][7][11][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To quench something other than a literal fire, such as a passion or a faculty: 1540, in R. Jonas's translation of Roesslin's Byrth of Mankynde,^[2] with Etymonline giving the 1540s^[4] and Merriam-Webster about 1540.^[10] Barnhart argues for probably before 1503, interpolating from the derivatives extinguishment (1503) and extinguishable (1509).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The literal and figurative uses appeared together: the OED's first quotation for putting out a fire or light is from 1551, and early medical writers also used the word for reducing an inflammation.^[2] From the idea of quenching it soon spread to making an end of things altogether: voiding a bill or claim (1548), doing away with something completely (1555), suppressing books, customs or offices (1590) and wiping out a family or race (1593).^[2] The sense of paying off a debt in full appears in 1630;^[2] "to extinguish a debt", to pay it off gradually, was noted as a Scotticism in 1799.^[13] A rhetorical use, to eclipse by greater brilliance, dates from 1551^[2] and is now archaic,^[6][8] and Johnson (1755) listed it as "to cloud; to obscure" after "to put out; to quench" and "to suppress; to destroy".^[14] The agent noun extinguisher is recorded from 1560.^[5] Gladstone in 1878 is the OED's first example of the colloquial sense of silencing an opponent.^[2]

Timeline

• 1540 – to quench hopes, passions or faculties; to silence.^[2][4]
• 1548 – to render a bill, claim or right void.^[2]
• 1551 – to put out a fire or light; also, to eclipse by greater brilliance.^[2]
• 1555 – to put a total end to, to blot out of existence.^[2]
• 1593 – to wipe out a family or race.^[2]
• 1598 – to kill a person (last recorded 1670).^[2]
• 1599 – intransitive, to die out (last recorded 1797).^[2]
• 1630 – to wipe out a debt by full payment.^[2]
• 1878 – colloquial, to reduce an opponent to silence.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause a fire or light to stop burning; to put out or quench: He extinguished the candle with his fingers.^[6][10][2]
2. To bring something such as hope or life to an end; to destroy or do away with completely.^[6][10][2]
3. To wipe out a family, species or the like.^[8][2]
4. (law) To make a right or claim void.^[8][2]
5. (law) To discharge a debt by full payment.^[6][8][2]
6. (informal) To reduce an opponent to silence.^[8][2]
7. (archaic) To eclipse or obscure by greater brilliance.^[6][8][2]
8. (obsolete, 1598–1670) To kill a person.^[2][8]
9. (obsolete, 1599–1797) Of a thing, to die out.^[2][8]

Word family

• extinguishable
• extinguishment
• extinguisher
• self-extinguishing

Related words

• distinguish
• extinct
• extinction
• fire extinguisher
• instigate
• stick

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.