Driven out or expelled with force; finished or completed thoroughly in Latin usage.
From Latin exactus, past participle of exigere meaning 'to drive out' or 'to demand.' The prefix ex- means 'out' and agere means 'to drive,' so the word literally means 'driven out.' Over time it came to mean 'finished' or 'completed.'
This Latin word shows how Roman legal and military language was obsessed with precision and completion—exactus appears in documents describing expelled enemies and finished transactions, which is why our modern word 'exact' (meaning precise) comes from the same root about demanding perfect accuracy.
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