A person or thing that completely removes or destroys something, especially a pest, disease, or problem.
From Latin 'extirpator,' agent noun derived from extirpare, meaning 'one who uproots.' The word entered English carrying both the literal sense of removing plants and the figurative sense of eliminating problems.
Historically, 'extirpators' referred to predators like wolves that hunters removed from land, and ironically, scientists now call those same wolves 'keystone species'—meaning their removal caused more ecological damage than anyone expected, a humbling lesson about unintended consequences.
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