extinct: [15] Latin stinguere appears originally to have meant ‘prick, stick’ (a sense revealed in the derivative from which English gets distinct), but in historical times the only record of it we have is in the later, and rather remote metaphorical meaning ‘quench’. With the addition of the prefix ex- ‘out’ it became extinguere ‘put out’, whence English extinguish [16]. Extinct comes from its past participle, extinctus, and originally meant ‘put out, no longer alight’: ‘That fire was extinct’, Ranulph Higden, Polychronicon 1432– 50.
Its modern use, ‘having died out’, dates – in relation to species, families, etc – from the late 17th century. => distinct, extinguish
extinct (adj.)
early 15c., "extinguished, quenched," from Latin extinctus/exstinctus, past participle of extinguere/exstinguere "to put out, quench; go out, die out; kill, destroy" (see extinguish). Originally of fires; in reference to the condition of a family or a hereditary title that has "died out," from 1580s; of species by 1768. Shakespeare uses it as a verb. Compare extinction.
实用例句
1. Herbalism had become an all but extinct skill in the Western world.
草药医术在西方已经成了一门几乎绝迹的技艺。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Its tallest volcano, long extinct, is Olympus Mons.
它最高的火山是早已熄灭的奥林波斯山。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Servants are now almost extinct in modern society.
在现代社会里奴仆已近乎不复存在。
来自《权威词典》
4. The extinct volcano's eruption would mean a cataclysm for the city.
