Resources for November 2, 2014

Merriam-Webster's Word-of-the-Day

vendetta \ven-DET-uh\

noun 1 : a feud between different families; 2 : an often prolonged series of retaliatory, vengeful, or hostile acts or exchange of such acts

EXAMPLES

The vendetta between the two more powerful families on the island reached new heights when the prominent son of one family and two of his associates suddenly went missing.

"Lawyers for the indicted … sheriff are accusing the federal prosecutor of misconduct, saying he has a vendetta against their client and threatened him with arrest during a heated May meeting over U.S. Forest Service patrols in northern New Mexico." — Russell Contreras, Albuquerque Journal, August 20, 2014

Vendetta has been getting even in English since the mid-19th century. English speakers borrowed vendetta, spelling and all, from Italian, in which it means "revenge." It ultimately traces to the Latin verb vindicare, which means "to lay claim to" or "to avenge." That Latin word is also in the family tree of many other English terms related to getting even, including avenge, revenge, vengeance, vindicate, and vindictive.


Berrett, Trevor, David Blakeslee and Scott Nye. "Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal." Criterion Cast #150 (October 18, 2014)

"The Seventh Seal (Sweden: Ingmar Bergman, 1957)." Dialogic Cinephilia (November 1, 2014)

Jenning, Tom, James Marsh and Joakim Thiesen. "Masters of Cinema Cast #19: Erle C. Kenton's Island of Lost Soulds." Criterion Cast (October 17, 2014)

Speri, Alice. "Mike Brown’s Mom Is Taking Her Son’s Case to the UN in Geneva." Vice (October 31, 2014)

Guo, Ting. "Cloud Atlas." Journal of Religion & Film 17.2 (October 2013)

Goodman, Daniel Ross. "Museum Hours." Journal of Religion & Film 17.2 (October 2013)

Paulus, Tom. "The Disappearance of Kristen Stewart (and Other Mysteries in Contemporary Art Cinema)." Photogenie (October 2014)

Pegg, Danny. "Promethus." Journal of Religion & Film 17.2 (October 2013)