Revenge is harm done in return for harm suffered. Getting your own back, and meaning it.
It takes on for the person and for for the wrong: revenge on the man who did it, revenge for what happened. What separates it from justice is that revenge is personal and unmeasured, which is why the law takes the job away from individuals. English keeps a proverb warning that it is a dish best served cold. Sport uses the word mildly, since a revenge match simply means a rematch after a defeat.
1nounrevengeHarm inflicted in return for a wrong suffered.
“He spent years plotting his revenge.”
Latin
vindicō
Old Occitan
revènge — revenge, comeback
Old French
revengier
Middle French
revenge
English, today
revenge
From Middle French revenge, a derivation from revenger, from Old French revengier (possibly influenced by Old Occitan revènge (“revenge, comeback”), from Old Occitan revenir (“to come back”)), a variant of Middle French revancher (whence deverbal French revanche), from Old French revenchier. The variants Old French vengier (whence French venger) and Old French venchier are both descended from Latin vindicō, with stress-conditioned different parallel development in the inflectional forms. a doublet of revanche. Compare avenge and vengeance.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA