To terminate something means to bring it to an end or to stop it completely. It can refer to ending a job, a contract, a process, or even a life in extreme contexts.
From Latin *terminatus*, past participle of *terminare* 'to end, to limit', from *terminus* 'boundary, end'. The idea is crossing or reaching the final boundary of something.
Terminate sounds dramatic, but at its core it just means 'to put a boundary on'. We use the same root when we 'determine' something—deciding is just drawing a mental boundary around one choice.
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