Settle a score

Origin

Imagine a time before paper was common, when merchants and common folk kept track of debts with simple notches on a stick—a tally stick. Each notch was a "score," a mark against someone's account. To "settle" this score meant to pay what was owed, to balance the books and erase the debt, often by making a final mark or breaking the stick. This very physical act of balancing a financial account soon took on a darker, more personal meaning. When someone had been wronged, an invisible "score" was created, a debt of injury or insult that needed to be repaid. Thus, "settle a score" became a vivid way to describe evening out past grievances, moving from the tangible world of ledgers and tally sticks to the visceral realm of revenge.