Vengeance is punishment inflicted in return for a wrong. Seek vengeance, swear vengeance, with a vengeance.
The difference from justice is who acts: justice is done by an authority and vengeance by the wronged party, and every legal system exists partly to take the second out of private hands. With a vengeance means to an extreme degree.
1nounvengeancePunishment inflicted in return for a wrong.
“He swore vengeance on the men who had burned down his farm.”
vengeance is a punishment.
Old French vengeance comes from vengier, to avenge, from Latin vindicare, to claim or avenge. Vindicate is the same root.
Proto-Indo-European
*deyḱ-
Old French
vengeance
Anglo-Norman
vengeaunce
English, today
vengeance
Built from
From Anglo-Norman vengeaunce, from Old French vengeance, venjance, from vengier (“to avenge”). Analysable as venge + ance.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA