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Recently, there is a lengthy discussion around "liquidate" word in another SE question and its meaning. I'm wondering is it correct to use "liquidate" instead of "kill" in that particular situation (i.e. referring to some terrorist acts and killing innocent people)? If its meaning is equivalent to "kill" how prevalent is using this word among native English speakers? I appreciate any recommendation or suggestion.

Some of those discussions are mentioned here for reference:

• "liquidate" word seems "unnecessarily insensitive (and esoteric) way to refer to the tragic deaths of humans".


• Also "liquidate" word may bring this image up: "Liquidated in this context also brings up imagery of liquefaction... an equally disturbing image when applied to people"


• Some other opinion: " It's a word used in James Bond and similar fictions, also e.g. when describing mafia murders, also e.g. killing political opponents (sometimes en masse), or e.g. genocide, a synonym for "assassinate"; perhaps it even comes across as dispassionate somehow, i.e. professional extra-legal killing."


• The one that bring "liquidate" up to that question defend his/her choice as: "From the Oxford American Dictionarey: LIQUIDATE (V): TO ELIMINATE, ESPECIALLY BY VIOLENT MEANS; KILL."


• Someone mentioned it is common word for referring to genocide or mass murdering: "if you read history about "death squads" for example, or political infighting, genocide ... it's used twice in Wikipedia's article on Stalin, for example. Perhaps it was originally a euphemism, like "eliminate"."

The term liquidate dates back to the 16th century but its more common contemporary connotations are more recent. As suggested by Etymonline the sense “to kill” probably derives from a Russian usage of the same Latin root.

1570s, of accounts, "to reduce to order, to set out clearly" (a sense now obsolete), from Late Latin or Medieval Latin liquidatus, past participle of liquidare "to melt, make liquid, make clear, clarify," from Latin liquidus "fluid, liquid, moist" (see liquid (adj.)). Sense of "clear away" (a debt) first recorded 1755. The meaning "wipe out, kill" is from 1924, possibly from Russian likvidirovat, ultimately from the Latin word.

If its meaning is equivalent to "kill" how prevalent is using this word among native English speakers?

It's common enough.

It's not on-topic in everyday conversation, thankfully -- so depending on what you read perhaps you've never heard of it -- but e.g. it appears twice in Wikipedia's article on Stalin:

In January 1930, the Politburo approved a measure to liquidate the existence of the kulaks as a class

It is hard for me to reconcile the courtesy and consideration he showed me personally with the ghastly cruelty of his wholesale liquidations.

Perhaps it was originally a euphemism (like "eliminate" ... or "final solution" or similar) -- these days its meaning is plain, unambiguous.

I'm wondering is it correct to use "liquidate" instead of "kill" in that particular situation?

Yes, it's appropriate in-context.

I think it's used in these kinds of context:

• 
  

  Killing individuals:

  
  
  
  • Targeted assassination of political opponents
  
  
  • Also e.g. in when mafiosi kill each other when vying for control
  
  
  • James Bond and similar fictions
  
  


• 
  

  Killing groups:

  
  
  
  • Killing political opponents en masse, e.g. death squads, concentration camps
  
  
  • Genocide, a.k.a. "ethnic cleansing"
  
  

Apparently its etymology implies, "remove an obstacle":

Sense of "clear away" (a debt) first recorded 1755. The meaning "wipe out, kill" is from 1924, possibly from Russian likvidirovat, ultimately from the Latin word.

IMO a "liquidation sale" for example isn't just "convert to cash" it's also "get rid of unwanted stuff".

You might think that using it now (to mean "killing") is insensitive, but it does mean killing now and I don't think there's really a nice way to say it. Yes it puts me in mind of people being killed involuntarily, violently or slowly.

I think it's especially appropriate (i.e. the right meaning) when the killing is extra-legal (e.g. criminal), or pseudo-legal (e.g. totalitarian regimes) -- not war (except civil war), not (accidental) manslaughter, and not even common criminals (e.g. murder associated with robbery or domestic violence).

So it's appropriate to use it to describe the 9/11 hijackers -- i.e. criminals or political assassins, killing people (e.g. the flight crew) as part of a pre-planned plan, removing an "obstacle".

liquidate verb

liq·ui·date | ˈli-kwə-ˌdāt

liquidated; liquidating

transitive verb

1a

(1) : to determine by agreement or by litigation the precise amount of (indebtedness, damages, or accounts)

(2) : to determine the liabilities (see LIABILITY sense 2) and apportion assets toward discharging the indebtedness of

1b : to settle (a debt) by payment or other settlement
liquidate a loan

2 archaic : to make clear

3 : to do away with especially by killing
was hired to liquidate a certain businessman

4 : to convert (assets) into cash
liquidated his securities

intransitive verb

1 : to liquidate debts, damages, or accounts

2 : to determine liabilities (see LIABILITY sense 2) and apportion assets toward discharging indebtedness
^{https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/liquidate}

It does appear as a term that would make sense in your context. To my ear, it is not a common usage, though, and evokes meaning through imagining "liquidating assets" in terms of a person. This gets confusing because liquidating assets does not eliminate them entirely, but converts them from physical goods to raw monetary value; how that would apply to a person, I don't see the connection. The dictionary says so, but ... I don't buy it.

A more common word to use here might be eliminate, terminate, or simply remove.