[It.,:—L. vindicta vengeance. Cf. VINDICTIVE a.]
1. A family blood-feud, usually of a hereditary character, as customary among the inhabitants of Corsica and parts of Italy.
1855. Edinb. Rev., CI. 456. Paoli … succeeded in making the vendetta disgraceful.
1860. All Year Round, No. 63. 299/2. The deadly ‘vendetta’ … which has sacrificed whole families, and once depopulated an entire village for one girl.
1870. O. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life (1891), 291. I came away thinking I had discovered a new national custom, as peculiar … as the Corsican vendetta.
2. A similar blood-feud, or prosecution of private revenge, in other communities.
1861. Pearson, Early & Mid. Ages, vii. 66. But there are no traces [among the early Anglo-Saxons] of that vendetta, which was the sombre glory of the Welsh.
1891. Spectator, 7 March. The Papuan … would eat everybody, but that he fears arousing endless vendettas.
attrib. 1897. Humanitarian, X. 209. The vendetta spirit is hereditary.
Hence Vendettist, one who takes part in, or carries on, a vendetta.
1878. Standard, 9 Oct., 6/1. No consideration whatever will prevent the vendettist from carrying out his fell purpose.
1904. Times, 2 June, 10/3. We at once perceive that they are bloodthirsty vendettists.
