Why “expugnation” is a great word
The forcible capture of a place by military assault, a taking by storm. From Latin expugnationem, a noun of action from expugnare ("to take by storm, conquer"), from ex- ("out, thoroughly") + pugnare ("to fight"), first attested in English in 1429. Unlike "capitulation," which implies a negotiated yielding, or "annexation," which often denotes a formal, administrative acquisition, expugnation is the raw, terminal violence of a siege. It is the final, deafening hour at the breached wall; the splintering of the last gate under the ram; the bitter surrender that is no surrender but a cessation of being overrun—the moment a defended space ceases to be itself and becomes merely a taken thing.