extinct

English
WOTD – 1 September 2024

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /ɪkˈstɪŋ(k)t/, /ɛk-/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋkt
  • Hyphenation: ex‧tinct

Etymology 1
PIE word
*h₁eǵʰs

From Late Middle English extinct (“eliminated, eradicated, extinguished”),[1] 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”),[2] 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.

Adjective

extinct (not comparable)

  1. (dated) Of fire, etc.: no longer alight; of a light, etc.: no longer shining; extinguished, quenched.
    Antonyms: alight, burning
    Edward’s cigarillo was extinct by the time he had finished talking.
  2. (figurative) Of feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.: put out, as if like a fire; quenched, suppressed.
  3. Of customs, ideas, laws and legal rights, offices, organizations, etc.: no longer existing or in use; defunct, discontinued, obsolete; specifically, of a title of nobility: no longer having any person qualified to hold it.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:obsolete
    Antonyms: (archaic) inextinct, unextinct; see also Thesaurus:active
    Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.
    The title became extinct when the last baron died.
    • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Edward the First, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book IX ([Englands Monarchs] […]), paragraph 23, page 652, column 2:
      [King Edward] as being deſcended of the eldeſt Daughter of Dauid, Earle of Huntingdon, a yonger ſonne of [Henry of] Scotland; vvhoſe iſſue (the line of the elder brother being extinct) vvas to inherite, vvithout queſtion.
    • 1628, Edw[ard] Coke, “Of Warrantie”, in The First Part of the Institutes of the Lawes of England. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for the Societe of Stationers, →OCLC, book 3, section 733, folio 384, verso:
      [I]f the father bee infeoffed with warrantie to him and his heyres, the father infeoffeth his eldeſt ſon with warrantie and dieth, the Law giueth to the ſonne aduantage of the Warrantie made to his father, becauſe by act in Law the Warrantie betweene the father and the ſonne is extinct.
    • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, “Of Those Things that Weaken, or Tend to the Dissolution of a Common-wealth”, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 174:
      [W]hen the Povver of an Aſſembly is once ſuppreſſed, the Right of the ſame periſheth utterly; becauſe the Aſſembly it ſelfe is extinct; and conſequently, there is no poſſibility for the Soveraignty to re-enter.
    • 1726, John Ayliffe, “Of Ecclesiastical Censures, and the Division thereof”, in Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani: Or, A Commentary, by Way of Supplement to the Canons and Constitutions of the Church of England. […], London: […] D. Leach, and sold by John Walthoe […], →OCLC, page 156:
      An Eccleſiaſtical Cenſure is tvvofold; the one inflicted by Lavv; and the other inflicted by Man. […] Some ſay, That a Cenſure ab Homine, ceaſes on the Death of the Perſon, that pronounced the ſame; but a Cenſure inflicted à Jure continues, tho' ſuch Lavv be extinct, or the Lavv-giver removed from his Office.
    • 1849, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter V, in The History of England from the Accession of James II, volume I, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 36:
      The hatred with which he [George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys] was regarded by the people of Somersetshire has no parallel in our history. […] When he had been many years dead, when his name and title were extinct, his granddaughter, the Countess of Pomfret [Henrietta Louisa Fermor], travelling along the western road, was insulted by the populace, and found that she could not safely venture herself among the descendants of those who had witnessed the bloody assizes.
    • 1951 October, H[enry] C[yril] Casserley, “Crane Engines”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 660:
      The withdrawal in past months of the former North London Railway locomotive from Bow, and one of the three ex-Great Eastern engines from Stratford works, indicates that the crane locomotive will soon be extinct on British Railways.
    • 1961 January, Trains Illustrated, London: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, photograph caption, page 59:
      The ex-G.C. Class A5 4-6-2T, of which No. 69820 was one, is now extinct.
    • 1988, Andrew Radford, “Other Phrases”, in Transformational Grammar: A First Course (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire; New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, published 1989, →ISBN, page 275:
      Indeed the very fact that the English spelling system writes in there as two words but therein as one word might be taken as suggesting that only the former is a productive syntactic construction in Modern English, the latter being a now extinct construction which has left behind a few fossil remnants in the form of compound words such as thereby.
  4. (chiefly biology) Of an animal or plant species, a class of people, a family, etc.: having died out completely; no longer in existence.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:inexistent
    Antonyms: extant, (archaic) inextinct, living, nonextinct, unextinct; see also Thesaurus:existent
    Dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years.
  5. (geology) Of a geological feature: no longer active; specifically, of a volcano: no longer erupting.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dead
    Antonyms: active, dormant, nonextinct, unextinct
    Most of the volcanos on this island are now extinct.
    They found the sites of extinct geysers.
  6. Of a radioisotope: no longer occurring primordially due to having decayed away completely, due to too short of a half-life; for example, neptunium-237 (half-life about 2 million years). (See Extinct radionuclide.)
  7. (obsolete) Of a person: dead; also, permanently separated from others.
    • [1545?], John Heywood, The Playe Called The Foure PP […], London: […] Wyllyam Myddylton, →OCLC; reprinted as John S. Farmer, editor, The Play Called The Four PP […] (The Tudor Facsimile Texts), London; Edinburgh: […] T. C. & E. C. Jack, […], 1908, →OCLC, signature D.iii., recto:
      [H]e may at lybertie / Paſſe ſaue without hys ieopardy / Tyll that he be from vs extyncte / And clerely out of helles precincte
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English extincten (“to extinguish or put out (a fire, light, etc.); to destroy, kill; (figurative) to suppress (an uprising); (law) to quash or stop (legal proceedings); to cancel (a privilege, title, etc.); (medicine) to eliminate or reduce (inflammation, an ulcer, etc.)”),[3] from extinct (adjective) (see etymology 1)[4] + -en (suffix forming the infinitive of verbs).[5]

Verb

extinct (third-person singular simple present extincts, present participle extincting, simple past extincted, past participle extincted or (obsolete) extinct) (transitive)

  1. Synonym of extinguish
    1. (obsolete) To stop (fire, etc.) from burning; also, to stop (light, etc.) from shining; to put out, to quench.
    2. (obsolete, figurative) To kill (someone).
    3. (obsolete, figurative) To put an end to (something) completely; to annihilate, to destroy.
      1. (specifically, biology) To cause (an animal or plant species) to die out completely or become extinct (adjective sense 4).
        Antonym: de-extinct
        • 2003, Steven A. LeBlanc, Katherine E. Register, “Was there Ever an Eden?”, in Constant Battles: Why We Fight, 1st St. Martin’s Griffin edition, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, published August 2004, →ISBN, page 34:
          Paleontologists determine which animal species were extincted, and geomorphologists can find cycles of soil erosion. […] The first settlers were living along the coast of this very large island off Africa [Madagascar], but in about seven hundred years they had spread across the entire island and in the process extincted almost all large game, including hippos, tortoises, giant lemurs—some two dozen species in all.
    4. (obsolete, figurative) To suppress (something, as feelings, a person's spirit, a state of affairs, etc.); to quench.
      • 1556, John Heywood, chapter 7, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell, →OCLC; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, →OCLC, page 50:
        It is more hard, loue to our ſelues to extinkt, / Then hate to other, to plucke from tharts preſinkt, / Thus, of iuſtice no let ledeth intrupcion, / Like this loue (name ſelfe loue) growne of corrupcion.
      • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 316, column 2:
        Great Ioue, Othello guard, / And ſvvell his Saile vvith thine ovvne povvrefull breath, / That he may bleſſe this Bay vvith his tall Ship, / Make loues quicke pants in Deſdemonaes Armes, / Giue renevv'd fire to our extincted Spirits.
        An adjective use.
    5. (obsolete, figurative, chiefly law) To abolish or make void (a law, a legal right, etc.); also, to cancel (a creditor's claim, a licence, etc.).
      • c. 1596 (date written), Francis Bacon, “Maxims of the Law. Regula IX. Quod remedio destituitur ipsa re valet, si culpa absit.”, in James Spedding, Robert Leslie Ellis, and Douglas Denon Heath, editors, The Works of Francis Bacon, […], volume VII, London: Longman, Green, and Co.;  […], published 1859, →OCLC, page 353:
        So if I have a rent charge, and grant it upon condition; now, though the condition be broken, the grantee's estate is not defeated till I have made my claim: but if after any such grant my father purchase the land, and it descend to me; now, if the condition be broken, the rent ceaseth without claim. But if I had purchased the land myself, then I had extincted mine own condition, because I had disabled myself to make my claim.
      • 1746, Christopher St. Germain, “The Fifth Question of the Student”, in Doctor and Student: Or Dialogues between a Doctor of Divinity, and a Student in the Laws of England, […], In the Savoy [London]: […] Henry Lintot, (assignee of Edward Sayer, Esq), →OCLC, page 74:
        And foraſmuch as the ſaid Statute vvas ordained to give a Certainty of Title in the Lands and Tenements compriſed in the Fine, it ſeemeth that the Fine extincteth the Title of all other, as vvell in Conſcience, as it doth in the Lavv.
Usage notes

Sense 1.3.1 (“to cause (an animal or plant species) to die out completely or become extinct”) is the only sense that is current.

Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 3

Either:[6]

Noun

extinct (uncountable)

  1. (obsolete) Synonym of extinction (“the action of becoming or making extinct; annihilation”)
    • 1606, I. F. [i.e., John Ford], “To the Right Honorable the Earle of Pembroke. Third Position. Faire Ladie was Neuer False.”, in Honor Triumphant. Or The Peeres Challenge, by Armes Defensible, at Tilt, Turney, and Barriers. […], London: […] [George Eld] for Francis Burton, →OCLC, signature [D2], verso:
      [W]ho is he […] as vvould not euen in the glas of Lucreſias perſeuerãce (euẽ to the vttermoſt extinct of life) ſe the vvõder of bevvty, matched vvith the indiuiduat adiũt vnſoyled conſtancy.
      [W]ho is he […] as would not even in the glass of Lucretia’s perseverance (even to the uttermost extinction of life) see the wonder of beauty, matched with the individuate adjunct unsoiled constancy.
    • 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Ethelred Commonly Called the Unreadie, […]”, in The History of Great Britaine under the Conquests of yͤ Romans, Saxons, Danes and Normans. […], London: […] William Hall and John Beale, for John Sudbury and George Humble, […], →OCLC, book VII ([The Saxons] […]), paragraph 30, page 360, column 1:
      [W]ee have cauſe to feare the loſſe of our Kingdome, and you the extinct of the Engliſh nations renovvne; […]

References
  1. “extinct, ppl.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. Compare “extinct, adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2024; “extinct, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. “extincten, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. “† extinct, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
  5. “-en, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  6. “† extinct, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023.

Further reading
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