Reprisal vs Retribution - What's the difference?
reprisal | retribution |
An act of retaliation.
(archaic) Something taken from an enemy in retaliation.
(archaic) The act of taking something from an enemy by way of retaliation or indemnity.
* Macaulay
Punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.
*1983 , Richard A. Posner, The economics of justice m p.208:
*:Whereas retribution focuses on the offender's wrong, retaliation focuses on the impulse of the victim (or of those who sympathize with him) to strike back at the offender.
* 1999 , , Medieval crime and social control , p.73:
*:1. Revenge is for an injury; retribution is for a wrong.
*:2. Retribution sets an internal limit to the amount of the punishment according to the seriousness of the wrong; revenge need not.
*:3. Revenge is personal; the agent of retribution need have no special or personal tie to the victim of the wrong for which he exacts retribution.
*:4. Revenge involves a particular emotional tone, pleasure in the suffering of another, while retribution need involve no emotional tone.
As nouns the difference between reprisal and retribution
is that reprisal is an act of retaliation while retribution is punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.reprisal
English
Noun
(en noun)- debatable ground, on which incursions and reprisals continued to take place