Etymology

annihilate

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Today it means: To reduce to nothing, to destroy, to eradicate. Full definition →

Latin annihilātus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromannihilātus
  2. English todayannihilate

Borrowed from Latin annihilātus, perfect passive participle of annihilō (“to reduce to nothing”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ad (“to”) + nihil (“nothing”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). See also an-.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.