Instinguish is Extinct and Distinct from Extinguish

A month ago this blog explained:

…where do distinct, extinct, and instinct come from? They areall related to the past participle forms of Latin words (extinctus, instinctus, and distinctus),which is why they also have –tinct ending. All three are related to the Latinword for prick or goad or quench: stinguere.And etyomonline further elucidates, tieing the “ish” forms of words like extinguish and distinguish to the “Latin inchoative suffix –iscere).

Extinct arrived in English in the early 1400s. The Latin word from which it comes means much the same extinguish does: to put out, quench, go out or die out. I never realized that extinct and extinguish are so similar. Extinct was originally used of fires. While it is an adjective, Shakespeare used it as a verb. (I think the reference was to a gangster threatening to “extinct” someone.) It means no longer in existence or use, and it was not until the 1580s that it was applied to the situation where a family or a hereditary title ends, or dies out, and it was almost another 200 years (in 1768) when it was first used of species. Now extinct is rarely used of anything other than species.

Extinguish arrived in English in the 1540s, before Shakespeare was born, so why he used extinct as a verb rather than extinguish is hard to distinguish. Extinguish means to put out a fire or light or flame, or bring something to an end or out of existence.

Distinguish, on the other hand, arrived about the same time as Shakespeare, in the 1560s. It came from the Middle French word distinguiss-, the stem of dinstinguer, or it might have come directly from the Latin word distinguere. Distinguere means to separate or mark off. It still means to mark off as different, or to recognize something as different.

Distinct arrived in English in the late 1300s, originally as the past participle of distincten, a word from the Old French distincter that appeared about 1300. It means different or separate or dissimilar.

Instinct, along with extinct, arrived in English in the early 1400s. The Latin word instinctus from which it comes has a sense of prompting, or impulse that remains in the definition of instinct meaning a natural or innate impulse or tendency. It is interesting that it did not develop the animalistic sense of intuitive perception until the middle 1400s, and the meaning of innate tendency did not occur until the 1560s.

But there is no such word as instinguish.