Retaliatory

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɹɪˈtælɪət(ə)ɹɪ/

Definitions

1. This term refers to actions designed as a response to harm or insult, often implying a form of vengeance or counterattack
2. Describing measures enacted in reaction to perceived injury, it conveys the notion of responding with punitive intent
3. Characterizing acts carried out to respond to a previous attack or wrongdoing

Etymology: "Retaliatory" is built from "retaliate" plus the suffix "-ory", and the suffix is the more interesting half. It descends from a Latin suffix "-torius", formed from the agent-marking "-tor" and the adjectival ending "-ius", which passed through Old French and reached English as "-ory" in Middle English. The same suffix turns up in words like "satisfactory" and "compulsory," so it marks a thing that does or serves a given function. The base, "retaliate," is a later borrowing from Latin "retaliare," meaning to return like for like, from "talio," or "talion," the law of retribution. Latin "talio" comes from "talis," meaning "such," so the root idea is "in such a way," a matching repayment. English took "retaliate" directly from Latin in the 1600s, and the adjective followed the same pattern, putting a sense of answering an injury with a matching injury into a single word.

Synonyms: vengeful, revengeful

Antonyms: forgiving, lenient