vendicatore

Forms

vendicatore m (plural vendicatori, feminine vendicatrice)^[1] An old form was Old Italian vindicatore, with the plural vindicaturi in a translation of Petrarch.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin vindicātōrem, a Late Latin agent noun of vindicō (“to claim; to avenge”).^[3][4][5][1] DELI and the GDLI place it in the Latin of the Church, where it was formed to translate the Greek word for “avenger” of the scriptures.^[6][2] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli simply call it Latin.^[7][8] Its ⟨e⟩ was taken over from the Italian verb vendicare.^[9]

The Latin verb was formed from vindex (“defender, protector; avenger”).^[1][7] The OLD analyses it as vim (“force”) and dīcō (“to say”), and DELI calls the formation of the noun unclear.^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI dates it to the 13th century, in the vernacular translations of Gregory the Great's Moralia and of Livy, with the sense “one who avenges”;^[6][3] Boccaccio uses it as well.^[6][3] Tommaseo quotes the Moralia: Il coltello è vendicator delle iniquità “the knife is the avenger of iniquities”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was both noun and adjective: Boccaccio has women rising up vendicatrici “avengers” of their murdered husbands, and the Florus translation calls Scipio the avenger of his father and grandfather.^[2] The GDLI widens the sense to one who punishes a wrong in general, not only a personal one.^[2]

In poetry the feminine adjective went with the Furies and with divine anger: Pindemonte writes of the vendicatrici Erinni and Tasso of l'ira mia vendicatrice.^[12] In modern use the noun can have a positive sense, of one who stands up for the weak.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 13th century – The vernacular Moralia of Gregory and the vernacular Livy use vendicatore.^[6]
• 14th century – Boccaccio uses the feminine vendicatrici.^[6][2]
• 19th century – Mazzini writes of a citizen who dies without knowing that he will have an avenger.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An avenger: one who takes revenge for a wrong, or who punishes it: si fece vendicatore del padre ucciso.^{[3][8][12][1]}

Adjective

1. avenging, vengeful: una dea vendicatrice.^{[3][4][12][1]}

Related words

• vendicare
• vendetta
• vindice
• Latin vindex

Usage notes

The feminine is vendicatrice.^[1][5] As an adjective it is not common outside literary language.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 729
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana