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shrift. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
shrift, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
shrift in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
shrift you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English shrift (“confession to a priest; act or instance of this; sacrament of penance; penance assigned by a priest; penitence, repentance; punishment for sin”) ,[1][2] from Late Old English scryft, Old English sċrift (“penance, shrift; something prescribed as punishment, penalty; one who passes sentence, a judge”), from sċrīfan (“of a priest: to prescribe absolution or penance; to pass judgment, ordain, prescribe; to appoint, decree”) (whence shrive),[3] from Proto-Germanic *skrībaną (“to write”), from Latin scrībō (“to write”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreybʰ- (“to scratch, tear”).
Pronunciation
Noun
shrift (countable and uncountable, plural shrifts)
- The act of going to or hearing a religious confession.
1820, John Keats, “Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil. A Story from Boccaccio.”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, , →OCLC, stanza LIX, page 78:For seldom did she go to chapel-shrift, / And seldom felt she any hunger-pain; [...]
- Confession to a priest.
- (obsolete) Forgiveness given by a priest after confession; remission.
c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):[Friar:] Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift. / Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.
Derived terms
Translations
act of going to or hearing a religious confession
forgiveness given by a priest after confession
References
- ^ “shrift, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
- ^ Arika Okrent (2019 July 5) “12 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms”, in Mental Floss, Pocket, retrieved 2021-10-08
- ^ Compare “shrift, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1914; “shrift, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022; “shrive, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1914; “shrive, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Anagrams