English
exterminate
Exterminate comes from Latin exterminātus ‘expelled, exiled, banished’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexterminātus‘expelled, exiled, banished’
- Englishearliest quotation 1869exterminate
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEexterminātus‘expelled, exiled, banished’
- Englishearliest quotation 1869exterminate
Earliest quotation: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “The natives everywhere eat their [sc. cuscuses] flesh, and…”
Every English word from Latin exterminātus
Today it means
verb To kill or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin exterminātus / exterminate