words!

[dsrtao]

vindictive -- seeking revenge

vindicative -- establishing justification or innocence

Except! that vindicative is sliding into vindictive. Which is Wrong, but what can you do? Human languages are not programming languages, except in _Snow Crash_.

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen this slide, but that doesn't mean anything; I don't get out much. Where have you seen it?

[dsrtao]

The initial aggravation was in a comment on Making Light; the subsequent was the fact that plugging "define vindicative" into Google gets three or four dictionary sites that mention vindictive as a secondary meaning for vindicative.