venganza

Forms

venganza f (plural venganzas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote vengança, uengança and bengança.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish vengar + -anza.^[5][1][6][7]

The verb vengar continues Latin vindicō (“to claim; to set free, avenge”).^[4][7] The Latin verb is a denominative of vindex (“defender, protector”), according to Wiktionary.^[1] The OLD analyses it as made of vim, the accusative of the word for “force”, and dīcō.^[8] The same verb gave Portuguese vingar and Galician vingar, and Portuguese has the noun vingança.^[4][9] Spanish later took the Latin verb again as the learned vindicar, and the noun vindicta as vindicta in 1499.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the noun 1220–1250 and finds it in Berceo, in the form vengança.^[7][4] In Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1246–1252, known from an 18th-century copy) a sinner asks the Virgin to punish him if he falls again: faz en mí tal venganza qe tod el mundo fable de la mi malandanza “take such vengeance on me that the whole world talks of my misfortune”.^[3] The Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy) speaks of tan buena bengança … de el traydor “such good vengeance on the traitor”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose used it both for the satisfaction taken for a wrong, in the phrase tomar venganza, and for a legal punishment or penalty.^[10] Terreros gave both senses, the second as just punishment of a crime, with the example Dios aguarda el día de su venganza.^[11] Autoridades defined only the first, glossing it with Latin vindicta.^[12] Salvá marked the second sense as old in 1846, and the Academy added it in 1869; the DLE now labels it as no longer in use.^[13][14][5] Moliner records venganza legal, the old practice that allowed the victim or his kin to punish the offender.^[15] In Mexico venganza de Moctezuma is the jocular name for the diarrhoea of tourists.^[5][16]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – first record, in Berceo.^[7][4]
• c. 1240 – bengança in the Libro de Apolonio (14th-century copy).^[3]
• c. 1240–1272 – Herman el Alemán's translation of the Psalter, the earliest record in a contemporary manuscript.^[3]
• 1259 – Alfonso X's astrological prose has tomará vengança dél.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses vengança with Latin ultio and vindicta.^[17]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as the satisfaction taken for an offence received.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “De vengar”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. revenge, vengeance: satisfaction taken for an offence or harm suffered: Juró venganza por la ruina de su padre.^[5][1]
2. (obsolete) punishment, penalty.^[5][10]

Related words

• vengativo
• vengador
• vindicar
• vindicta
• Portuguese vingança

Usage notes

Tomar venganza “to take revenge” is the usual phrase from the 13th century on, and en venganza de means “in revenge for”.^[10][18][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. venganza
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. venganza
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 770
5. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. venganza
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vengar
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. vindicare
10. ^ a b c d Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. venganza
11. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 771
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 445
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 785
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 1102
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. venganza
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. venganza
17. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. venganza
18. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. venganza
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1078