Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Lesson 540. The lesson today is the difference
between vengeance, revenge and avenge. There's a lot of crossover with this one.
Anyway, if somebody wants screenshot do it right now. Let's get right to it.
All right. This is a request video as well. So let's get into it . Vengeance can only be a
noun and it refers to the act of taking revenge. So you can see there's some crossover already.
It means the act of killing injuring or harming someone because they have harmed you.
Vengeance is mostly used with more serious revenge. So if the revenge is too light we would
not be using vengeance. One that is violent or does true harm. Revenge can be both a verb and a
noun it's probably the most general of it and it's probably used the most often out of these three.
As a verb it means to take revenge as a noun revenge means to hurt or get back
at someone because he or she did something wrong to you. It could be serious as in violence so or
doing serious harm or it could be revenge that is less serious For example if someone plays a trick
on you and you decide to play a trick on them to get revenge. So this is a case where clearly
this is not very serious revenge, but we still call it revenge. You're getting back at them.
They did something to you that you didn't kind of like and you did something back to them.
But again, just like we say here. Vengeance is too serious to use in this situation. You only
played a trick on somebody. So that's not... that's that doesn't qualify for vengeance.
Let's continue. Both vengeance, both revenge and vengeance could simply refer to the desire
to get back. Like you could want to take vengeance or you could want to take revenge on someone.
Vengeance comes from the French word "vengeance. " I guess meaning violence or revenge
which derived from the Latin word "vindicare" meaning vindication. So you really want to get
back at them. Even though revenge can be a verb "avenge" is the more common verb for revenge.
So you could say you, you revenge someone but it might be more common to say avenge in this sense.
Avenge is not a noun but avenger is a noun is and then it's usually refers to the person
who who avenges. Okay. Okay. Thus Marvel superheroes take action against evil doers.
Okay or superheroes (supervillains). So they avenge you know, their their crimes or the hurting
of innocent people. All right. Let's continue. A famous quote by Samuel Johnson an English critic,
essayist, poet. etc. helps to shed light on these words. So it might help a little bit.
You know, here is his quote. So here is how he described it. Revenge is an act of passion. So
you've got this strong feeling really strong feeling to get back at somebody. Vengeance of
justice. You feel like you want justice for the wrong that's been done to you. Injuries
are revenge. So this is just the most general again. These could be light or serious. Crimes are
avenged. You know, so it was a serious crime done against you and you want your revenge for that.
Okay. Well, I hope that helps a bit. Let's continue. All right we got five examples to show
just how we will use it. Here's the first one. The Lakota Sioux and the northern Cayenne Warriors
took their vengeance on Colonel Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. That's Custer's last stand.
Of course , Custer was known for you know , killing off a lot of Indians. And yeah they
they wanted their vengeance. They wanted to get back at them and they actually wiped him out.
Him and his whole cavalry you know, got ambushed and they got rid of them all. So that's definitely
vengeance. Number two. That baseball team wanted revenge for being beaten by their team in last
year's World Series. Again yeah. You want revenge it's not that serious. You're not
killing anybody. Doing terrible harm to them. The worst thing that happened is they lose the game
or lose the world series, but still we would call this revenge. You want revenge , want to get back
at them. All right. Number three here. Okay. She bad-mouthed that girl at school as revenge
for stealing her boyfriend. Yeah. Again you're not getting violence. Probably the feeling is a little
stronger here, but still I would probably just say revenge. Vengeance is still a little bit on the
strong side for this one. Number four. Achilles avenged the death of Patroclus by battling and
killing Hector. Yeah. In the ... you know, the story of Troy. Helena of Troy. You know, there
was a while there where Achilles was.... didn't want to fight. And his best friend , Patroclus
took his uniform and went to fight and Hector the the, the good fighter on the other side.
He thought he was actually killing Achilles and he killed his friend and then of course
Achilles wanted to avenge that because Hector killed you know, his best friend. All right.
And number five here. He wanted to avenge his father's murder. So again. Yes. Just
like they say here. You , you want you know, justice for what something you feel is a crime
and very terrible. Okay. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope this helps you get a better feel of
when you're more likely to use one word than the other. Okay. Thank you for your time. Bye.