vendetta Italian · revision 39154

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1300, Bartolomeo da San Concordio|origins=la vindex}}

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+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /venˈdet.ta/^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Forms==

+ '''vendetta''' ''f'' (plural vendette)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la|vindicta|t=claim; liberation; vengeance; punishment]], a derivative of [[m|la|vindicō|t=to lay claim to; to avenge]], from [[m|la|vindex|t=defender, champion; avenger]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) The Latin noun first named the rod with which a slave was touched when he was set free, and so came to mean the act of liberation and the assertion of a right; the sense of revenge and punishment came later.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010) DELI notes that the Latin noun, like the verb, belonged to the language of Roman law, with senses far from the one that prevailed in Italian.^(DELI 1999) The Oxford Latin Dictionary explains the noun as probably a back-formation from the legal phrase [[m|la|vīs|alt=vim]] [[m|la|dīcō|alt=dictam]], “force (that is, ownership) asserted”,^(OLD 2012) while Devoto saw it as the feminine past participle of a supposed [[la|*vindicō|alt=*vindicere]] used as a noun.^(Devoto 1968)

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+ DEI counts the word as Italian and Spanish only, with [[osp|vendecha]] in Old Spanish.^(DEI|4009) The verb [[vendicare]] continues the Latin verb, and its relatives in the other Romance languages are [[fr|venger]], [[oc|venjar]], [[es|vengar]], [[pt|vingar]] and [[ro|vindeca]] “to save, to heal”.^(Nocentini 2010) The Latin short /i/ became /e/, and ⟨ct⟩ became ⟨tt⟩.^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first records, around 1300, are in Bartolomeo da San Concordio and in the ''Fiore'', with the sense of a harm done to someone in return for a wrong suffered;^(DELI 1999) Dante has ''far vendetta di'', to take revenge for.^(DELI 1999)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ From the start the word also meant the punishment that God inflicts: Dante uses it so, and the souls in Purgatory are struck by ''la divina vendetta''.^(DELI 1999)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026) The commentator Francesco da Buti (before 1406) defined revenge as inflicting a penalty to satisfy anger.^(DELI 1999)^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) The religious sense lives on in ''gridare vendetta'', of a crime that calls out for punishment (1686, Segneri, after ''esclamare vendetta'' in Pulci), and in ''il giorno della vendetta'', the Day of Judgement (1673).^(DELI 1999)^(Zingarelli 2010) In poetry it could mean persecution, as in Foscolo.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

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+ In the 20th century Panzini recorded ''vendetta corsa'' (1931), the sworn feud of Corsica.^(DEI|4009) It was from Corsica that the word went into French, recorded from 1788 (also as ''vendette'' and ''vindette''), and, from there into English, where Etymonline dates the blood feud to 1846 and the OED to 1855.^(DIFIT)^(DEI|4009)^(Etymonline) German has ''Vendetta'' for the blood feud from 1865.^(DIFIT) Modern Italian has ''vendetta trasversale'', revenge taken on the relatives of the offender, typical of the Mafia.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Gabrielli 2020)

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+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1300 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio and the ''Fiore'' use ''vendetta''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1300–1313 – Dante uses ''far vendetta di''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1321 – Dante uses ''vendetta'' for divine punishment.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci writes ''esclamare vendetta''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1673 – Paolo Segneri calls the Day of Judgement ''il giorno di vendetta''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1686 – Segneri uses ''gridare vendetta''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1788 – French ''vendetta'' is first recorded.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1846 – English ''vendetta'' “blood feud”, after Etymonline.^(Etymonline)

+ * 1865 – German ''Vendetta'' is recorded.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1931 – Panzini records ''vendetta corsa''.^(DEI|4009)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|revenge]], [[m|en|vengeance]]: harm done to someone to get satisfaction for a wrong or a loss suffered: ''Ha aspettato anni per la sua vendetta.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # Punishment, especially the just punishment inflicted by God: ''la vendetta divina''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # ''(poetic)'' [[m|en|persecution]].^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[vendicare]]

+ * [[vindice]]

+ * [[rivendicare]]

+ * [[la|vindicta]]

+ * [[en|vendetta]]

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+ ==Usage notes==

+ Common phrases are ''giurare vendetta'', to swear revenge, ''vendetta trasversale'', and the proverb ''la vendetta è un piatto che va servito freddo''.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(GRADIT 2003) The pejorative is ''vendettaccia'' and the diminutive ''vendettuccia''.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(DEI|4009)

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+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}