vendetta means revenge. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 73 out of 100.
vendetta is pronounced /vɛnˈdɛtə/.
Why “vendetta” is a great word
VENDETTA — [Noun] A prolonged, bitter, and often violent feud or series of retaliatory acts, typically between families or groups, motivated by a desire for revenge. From Italian vendetta ("revenge"), from Latin vindicta ("vengeance, revenge, vindication"). First attested in English in 1846, especially associated with Corsican blood feuds. Unlike "revenge" (a single, finite act) or "rivalry" (a competition without the imperative for blood retribution), a vendetta is a recursive, institutionalized hatred that transcends generations. It is a debt passed from father to son with the solemnity of an heirloom pistol; it is the patient, decades-long accounting of slights in a ledger stained with old blood; it is the specific chill of a child taught to recognize an enemy's face before learning the alphabet—a pact the living make with the dead, at the cost of the future.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian vendetta (“revenge”), from Latin vindicta. See vindicate, avenge.
noun
- Revenge.
- A bitter, destructive feud, normally between two families, clans, or factions, in which each injury or slaying is revenged: a blood feud.“The families had been locked in a bitter vendetta for generations.”
- A motivational grudge against a person or faction, which may or may not be reciprocated; the state of having it in for someone.“personal vendetta”