From Latin 'exstinguere' (to quench) — its past participle gave us 'extinct': something whose fire is permanently out.
To cause a fire or light to cease burning or shining; to put an end to something.
From Latin exstinguere (to quench, to put out, to destroy entirely), from ex- (out, thoroughly) + stinguere (to quench, to prick out a flame). The root stinguere is from PIE *steig- (to prick, to stick, to pierce) — the image is of literally pricking a flame out of existence, snuffing it by puncturing its source. The past participle exstinctus gave English extinct (something whose fire has been permanently pricked out). The same PIE root *steig- produced stick, sting, instigate, and distinct (literally marked out by pricks). The verb entered English around 1540 in the sense of quenching fire and thirst; by 1600 it was used figuratively for destroying hope
Words closest in meaning, ranked by similarity