shrift

shrift

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”) [and other forms],[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

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ʃɹɪft/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪft

Noun

shrift (countable and uncountable, plural shrifts)

1. 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 927360557, stanza LIX, page 78:

     For seldom did she go to chapel-shrift, / And seldom felt she any hunger-pain; [...]

2. Confession to a priest.
3. (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (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

• short shrift

Related terms

• shrive

Translations

act of going to or hearing a religious confession

Bulgarian: и́зповед (bg) f (ízpoved) Czech: zpověď (cs) f, odpuštění (cs) n German: Beichte (de) f, Beichtablegung f, Beichtgang m Russian: испове́дание (ru) n (ispovédanije) Swedish: skriftermål (sv) n, bikt (sv) c

confession to a priest

Bulgarian: и́зповед (bg) f (ízpoved) Finnish: rippi (fi), ripittäytyminen Georgian: აღსარება (aɣsareba) German: Beichte (de) f Russian: и́споведь (ru) f (íspovedʹ) Swedish: skriftermål (sv) n, bikt (sv) c

forgiveness given by a priest after confession

Bulgarian: опроще́ние (bg) n (oprošténie) Georgian: მიტევება (miṭeveba), შენდობა (šendoba) German: Sündenerlass m, Sündenvergebung f, Absolution (de) f Russian: отпуще́ние грехо́в n (otpuščénije grexóv) Swedish: syndaförlåtelse c

References

1. “shrift, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
2. Arika Okrent (2019-07-05), “12 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms”, in Mental Floss‎, Pocket, retrieved 2021-10-08
3. 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

• Firths, firths, friths