vindication

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the act of vindicating or defending against criticism or censure etc.
  2. noun the justification for some act or belief

Etymology

From Late Middle English vendicacion, vyndicacion, vyndycacion (“assertion of a claim”), from Old French vindication (“revenge, vengeance”) (modern dialectal French vindication), or from Medieval Latin vendicātio, both from Latin vindicātiō (“avenging; defence, protection, vindication; punishment; etc.”), from vindicō (“to avenge; to take revenge on; to protect from; etc.”) + -tiō (suffix forming nouns from verbs, denoting processes, actions, or results of actions). Vindicō is derived from vindex (“claimant, vindicator; defender, protector”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs); and vindex from vim (the accusative singular form of vīs (“force; power, strength; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- (“to chase, pursue; to persecute; to suppress”)) + dīcere (the present active infinitive of dīcō (“to declare, state; to refer to; to say, talk; etc.”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- (“to point out, show”)). By surface analysis, vindicate + -ion (suffix denoting an action or process, or its result).

In classic literature

Synonyms

exoneration

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