From
French. Our
Larousse's defines
revanche as "
revenge;
retaliation;
requital", etc.
"Revanchism" is a general descriptor for a policy or ideology based on the pursuit of revenge; for example
interbellicose German revanchism
wrt England and
France has been offered as one of many reasons for
Hitler's rise to power and the ensuing unpleasantness. We weren't there at the time so we really can't say. In any case,
German revanchism was in part a response to the unreasonable terms of the
Treaty of Versailles, those terms having been dictated by the British and the French in a
paroxysm of revanchism directed at
Germany, some of which dated from the loss of
Alsace in the
Franco-Prussian War of
1870. It's all about
vengeance, lads, and don't let nobody tell you different.
When we hold the compact edition of the
OED closed in our lap and tap it with our fingertips, it makes a beautiful
doinking sound, like so: "
Doink,
doink". Just like that.
Having
doinked our fill (don't
over-doink!), we now look up
revanchism, and find that the
OED generally backs us up but with more emphasis on "securing the return of lost territory".
Related forms: A
revanchard is a
revanchist, and both of them are
out for blood, but
revanchist appears in English in
1926 while
revanchard cools its heels in
Bulb Baby Heaven until the
Washington Post wraps it up and brings it home to meet the cat in
1961.
I think i'll go back to
doinking now.