Punisher

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A being that imposes penalties on offenders who violate rules or moral codes
2. An individual or force that inflicts consequences for misdeeds, focusing on the enforcement of justice or correction
3. Someone who carries out penalties or retribution to those who have done wrong

Etymology: The "-er" in "punisher" is one of English's most productive suffixes, and its history runs back well beyond English itself. It descends from a Proto-Indo-European agent marker that passed into Italic and then Latin as "-arius", a suffix for a person connected with a thing or a job. Old French turned that into "-ier", and Middle English borrowed the ending as "-er", the same route that gave English countless words for doers and workers. The verb "punish" is the older half of the pair. Built from Old French "punir" and Latin "punire", it meant to inflict a penalty on someone. Once English had "-er" to hand, it could attach the suffix to "punish" to name the one who carries out that penalty, so "punisher" is a transparent compound-style formation rather than a word with its own separate history.

Synonyms: avenger, retribution, disciplinarian

Antonyms: forgiver, pardon