Pretty much the same for me with a “constantly” added on to the small and mean.
Yes, Noam Chomsky, everyone gets that language is a fluid, dynamic, and highly emergent phenomenon whose wild beauty cannot be tamed by the whims of mere pedants. We hear your bold and original observation.
I could be wrong, but I interpreted you saying that a vindictive person is mainly motivated by revenge. As I see it, revenge is just one way of acting vindictive.
To use a hypothetical example, let’s say your workplace makes some group policy decision. One person says the policy will cause serious problems for the customers, but everyone overrides him. Subsequently, that person acts in ways cause those exact problems for your customers.
Is that revenge? Not really, because the victims aren’t the people who overrode the troublemaker. It definitely qualifies as spiteful. But the person’s motive is to be vindicated, so it seems to me that vindictive is a better fit than vengeful or spiteful.
People can disagree on whether ‘vindictive’ is the best fit for the above scenario, but what do you think is a better fit? Or is there one?
I didn’t vote because it wouldn’t let me choose multiple options (I would have selected 1-3). Also, I have a strong preference for public polls.
If someone always needs to be “right”, but are really polite about establishing it, then they are not vindictive.
“Closure” is now the euphemism of choice.
I always associate vindictive with feeling slighted for no good reason and wanting revenge. jealousy and envy come to mind.