different between ancient vs extinct

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?n.(t)??nt/

Etymology 1

From Middle English auncyen, borrowed from Old French ancien (“old”), from Vulgar Latin root *anteanus, from Latin ante (“before”). Compare antique.

Alternative forms

• anchient, aunchient, auncient, auntient, awncient, awntient (obsolete)
• antient (obsolete outside freemasonry)

Adjective

ancient (comparative ancienter or more ancient, superlative ancientest or most ancient)

1. Having lasted from a remote period; having been of long duration; of great age, very old.
2. Existent or occurring in time long past, usually in remote ages; belonging to or associated with antiquity; old, as opposed to modern.
3. (historical) Relating to antiquity as a primarily European historical period; the time before the Middle Ages.
4. (obsolete) Experienced; versed.
   • 1550, Thomas Cranmer, A Defence of the True and Catholick Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ; with a Confutation of sundry Errors concerning the same, grounded and stablished upon God's Holy Word, and approved by the consent of the most ancient Doc. tors of the Church

     approved by the consent of the moste ancient doctors of the Churche [part of the book title]

5. (obsolete) Former; sometime.

Synonyms

• (very old): aged, eldern, hoary; see also Thesaurus:old

Antonyms

• modern

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

ancient (plural ancients)

1. A person who is very old.
2. A person who lived in ancient times.
3. (Britain, law) One of the senior members of the Inns of Court or of Chancery.
4. (obsolete) A senior; an elder; a predecessor.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Junius and Andronicus […] in Christianity […] were his ancients.

Synonyms

• (person who is very old): geriatric, oldster, senior citizen; see also Thesaurus:old person
• (person who lived in ancient times): antique
• (predecessor): antecessor, forerunner; see also Thesaurus:predecessor

Etymology 2

Corruption of ensign.

Noun

ancient (plural ancients)

1. (heraldry, archaic) A flag, banner, standard or ensign.
   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests..

2. (obsolete, rare) the bearer of a flag; ensign

References

• The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at [2]
• ancient in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ancient in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ancient at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• cantine, catenin, enactin

English

Etymology

Recorded since 1432; borrowed from Latin extinctus, the past participle of extinguere (“to put out, destroy, abolish, extinguish”), corresponding to ex- + stinguere (“to quench”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?st??kt/, /?k?st??kt/
• Rhymes: -??kt

Adjective

extinct (not comparable)

1. (dated) Extinguished, no longer alight (of fire, candles etc.)

   Poor Edward's cigarillo was already extinct.

2. No longer used; obsolete, discontinued.

   The title became extinct when the last baron died.

   Luckily, such ideas about race are extinct in current sociological theory.

   • 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.

3. (of a group of organisms, as a species) No longer in existence; having died out.

4. (geology) No longer active.

Synonyms

• (no longer used): See also Thesaurus:obsolete
• (having died out): See also Thesaurus:inexistent
• (volcanology: no longer erupting): dead

Antonyms

• (no longer alight): burning
• (having died out): extant; See also Thesaurus:existent
• (volcanology: no longer erupting): active, dormant

Related terms

• extinction
• extinctive
• extinguish
• distinct

Translations

Further reading

• extinct at OneLook Dictionary Search
• extinct in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• extinct in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Verb

extinct (third-person singular simple present extincts, present participle extincting, simple past and past participle extincted)

1. (transitive, nonstandard) To make extinct; to extinguish or annihilate.