the.com/cruel
The deliberate choice to cause pain when kindness was right there.
means Willing to inflict suffering, or indifferent to it, often with a coldness that suggests enjoyment.
from From Latin crudelis, kin to crudus, raw or bloody — the same root that gives us crude, the cruel still bleeding from the wound.
Sibling wordShares roots with crude and raw flesh.
Legal cousinCruel and unusual punishment named in 1689 England.
Kind contrastCruel to be kind reverses the whole thing.