different between comeuppance vs nemesis

English

Alternative forms

• come-uppance
• comeupance

Etymology

From come up (“to appear before a judge”) +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?m??p?ns/

Noun

comeuppance (usually uncountable, plural comeuppances)

1. Retribution or outcome that is justly deserved.
   • 1883, Albion Winegar Tourgée, ed., The Continent; an illustrated weekly magazine, v 3.

     So when Brown's second wife turned out a reg'lar ternygrunt, I wa'n't in no wise upset, for he needed a comeuppance, an' he got it in her.

   • 1958, “Yankee Comeuppance in a Lousy Inning”, in Life, v 45, n 15 (October 13), p 34.

     The Yankees got their comeuppance in Milwaukee when the Braves piled up a record score for the first inning of a World Series game.

   • 2004, Peter Hunt, Sheila G. Bannister Ray, eds., International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature, p 862.

     […] in the anonymous A New Gift for Children (1750), perhaps America's first secular storybook, and its tales of children who are good and merit rewards, and tales of children who are otherwise and receive their comeuppances.

Synonyms

• (outcome that is justly deserved): just deserts

Translations

See also

• serve someone right

References

• comeuppance at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Etymology

From the Greek goddess of retribution Nemesis.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?m?s?s/

Noun

nemesis (plural nemeses)

1. (chiefly Canada, US) An archenemy

2. (chiefly non-North American usage) A person or character who specifically brings about the downfall of another person or character.
3. The principle of retributive justice.
4. (usually in the singular, formal) A punishment or defeat that is deserved and cannot be avoided.
5. The polar opposite of a character.
6. A righteous infliction of retribution manifested by an appropriate agent.

Coordinate terms

• antagonist
• villain
• rival
• bane
• archenemy
• adversary

Derived terms

• archnemesis
• chocolate nemesis
• nemetic

Translations

Anagrams

• Meissen, Semiens, misseen, siemens

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?ne.me.sis/, [?n?m?s??s?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?ne.me.sis/, [?n??m?s?is]

Noun

nemesis f (genitive nemesis or nemese?s or nemesios); third declension

1. nemesis

Declension

Third-declension noun (Greek-type, i-stem, i-stem).

¹Found sometimes in Medieval and New Latin.

Descendants

• Italian: nemesi
• Swedish: nemesis