the.com/payback
Revenge that files paperwork and calls itself justice.
means The repayment of a debt, loan, or investment — or, more often, the act of getting even with someone for a wrong they did you.
from A straightforward 19th-century compound of 'pay' plus 'back' — paying something back. It started in plain financial sense (loan payback periods, investment returns) and by the mid-20th century had curdled into slang for retaliation, where the 'debt' being repaid is an insult or injury rather than a dollar amount.
- origin
- financial term before it meant vengeance
- economics twist
- payback period just means investment recoup time
- psychology
- feels sweeter in anticipation than in execution
- irony
- rarely ends the cycle it claims to close