vendetta

noun vahn-DEH-tah Rare

Origin: Italian and Corsican vendetta, from Latin vindicta (vengeance)

Also means

blood feud

Usage Note

Vendetta entered French from Corsican/Italian, where it describes a prolonged feud between families bound by a code of honour to avenge offences. In contemporary French it is used more loosely for any persistent personal or professional rivalry. Corsica is strongly associated with the vendetta tradition in French cultural imagination.

Examples

"Une vieille vendetta oppose les deux familles."

Natural Translation

An old vendetta divides the two families.

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