vindicationvindication

The story

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’)).