Vindication is proof that somebody was right after all. A complete vindication, seek vindication, vindication at last.
The word carries time in it: vindication comes only after a period of being doubted, which is why it feels so different from mere agreement. In law, to vindicate a right is to assert and defend it successfully.
1nounvindicationProof that somebody was right after all.
“When the test proved her theory right, she felt a deep sense of vindication.”
vindication is a proving.
Latin vindicatio comes from vindicare, to claim or avenge.
Proto-Indo-European
*weyh₁- — to chase, pursue; to persecute; to suppress
Latin
vindicātiō — avenging; defence, protection, vindication; punishment; etc.
Medieval Latin
vendicātio
Old French
vindication — revenge, vengeance
Middle English
vendicacion
English, today
vindication
Built from
From Late Middle English vendicacion, vyndicacion, vyndycacion (“assertion of a claim”), from Old French vindication (“revenge, vengeance”) (modern dialectal French vindication), or from Medieval Latin vendicātio, both from Latin vindicātiō (“avenging; defence, protection, vindication; punishment; etc.”), from vindicō (“to avenge; to take revenge on; to protect from; etc.”) + -tiō. Vindicō is derived from vindex (“claimant, vindicator; defender, protector”) + -ō; and vindex from vim (the form of vīs (“force; power, strength; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European weyh₁- (“to chase, pursue; to persecute; to suppress”)) + dīcere (the of dīcō (“to declare, state; to refer to; to say, talk; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European deyḱ- (“to point out, show”)). by surface analysis, vindicate + -ion.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA