venger

Forms

venger^[1] Earlier venjiar (about 980), then Old French vengier.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French vengier, inherited from Latin vindicō (“to claim at law, to punish, to avenge”).^[4][5][2][6] The Latin verb was a legal term for “to claim in court, claim as property”, also “to set free” and “to punish the author of a wrong”.^[2] It is derived from vindex (“surety, protector, avenger”), the person who stood surety for the defendant in court.^[4][2] The first part of the noun is of uncertain origin, perhaps the accusative of vīs (“force, violence”); the second is the element of iūdex (“judge”), related to dīcō (“to say”).^[2][7]

The learned doublets revendiquer and vindicte come from the same Latin verb, and revancher is from vencher, another Old French form of the verb.^[7][6]

Cognate with Romanian vindeca (“to heal”), Italian vendicare, Occitan venjar, Catalan venjar, Spanish vengar and Portuguese vingar.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as venjiar in the Passion of about 980, meaning “to take revenge on someone”;^[3][2] the form venger is in the Chanson de Roland (about 1100): Si vengez cels que li fels fist ocire “so avenge those whom the villain had killed”.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the verb seems first to have meant “to punish (the offender)”, as in Latin, a sense well attested in the 13th century.^[2] The Latin vindex implied three people: offender, offended and the surety who acted for the second; this is seen in venger quelqu'un “to make amends to someone by punishing the offender”, used from the Chanson de Roland, and in se venger de, the most current use today.^[2]

Venger une offense, “to repair an offence by punishing the offender”, is first used with God as subject (1553).^[2] Other uses died out, such as soi venger “to recover (from an illness)” (about 1360), or became old-fashioned, such as the classical venger son honneur (Corneille, 1636).^[2][3] The English words avenge, vengeance and revenge come from the French family.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 980 – Venjiar appears in the Passion.^[3][2]
• c. 1100 – Venger and vengeance are used in the Chanson de Roland.^[4][6]
• c. 1283 – Vengier is recorded for “to punish”.^[2]
• c. 1360 – Pronominal soi venger “to recover from an illness”.^[2]
• 1553 – Venger une offense is used with God as subject.^[2]
• 1636 – Corneille writes venger son honneur.^[2][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To avenge someone, to make amends to them by punishing whoever wronged them.^[7][3]
2. To avenge (an offence), to repair it by punishing the offender.^[7][10]
3. Se venger: to take revenge (on someone, for something).^[7][1]

Word family

• vengeance
• vengeur
• revancher
• revanche

Related words

• revendiquer
• vindicte
• vendetta
• Latin vindicō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 14, 467a
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)