Vanquish

As I vanquished the dark forces of Sauron tonight on the MUD I was playing (because text is the way to go, forget WoW), I noticed how much I love the word vanquish. To me it sounds very medieval, like it should be accompanied be thees and thous and all sorts of wonderful old language that we don't use anymore. A righteous word used for the thorough crushing of ones evil enemies. All hail the mighty conqueror! Ahem, anyways...

The AHD defines vanquish as a verb meaning:

1a. To defeat or conquer in battle; subjugate. b. To defeat in a contest, conflict, or competition.
2. To overcome or subdue (an emotion, for example); supress.

It comes through Middle English, vaynquisshen, and Old French, vainquir, vainquiss-, from the Latin verb vincere meaning to defeat or win. It's pretty much kept its meaning intact in its travels through the languages to our current English usage of the word.