different between confession vs shrift

English

Alternative forms

• confessione (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English confessioun, from Old French confession, from Latin c?nfessi?, c?nfessi?nem (“confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”). Doublet of confessio.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?n?f???n/

Noun

confession (countable and uncountable, plural confessions)

1. The open admittance of having done something (especially something bad).
2. A formal document providing such an admission.

3. (Christianity) The disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution. In the Roman Catholic Church, it is now termed the sacrament of reconciliation.

   I went to confession and now I feel much better about what I had done.
4. Acknowledgment of belief; profession of one's faith.
5. A formula in which the articles of faith are comprised; a creed to be assented to or signed, as a preliminary to admission to membership of a church; a confession of faith.

Derived terms

• confessional
• nonconfession

Related terms

• confess

Translations

French

Etymology

From Old French confession, from Latin c?nfessi?, c?nfessi?nem (“confession, acknowledgment, creed or avowal of one's faith”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.f?.sj??/

Noun

confession f (plural confessions)

1. confession (admittance of having done something, good, bad or neutral)
2. confession (the disclosure of one's sins to a priest for absolution)
3. creed (a declaration of one's religious faith)

Derived terms

• donner le bon Dieu sans confession

Descendants

• ? German: Konfession
• ? Romanian: confesiune

Further reading

• “confession” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle English

Noun

confession (plural confessions)

1. alternative form of confessioun

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin c?nfessi?.

Noun

confession f (plural confessions)

1. confession

Related terms

• confessar

Old French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin c?nfessi?, c?nfessi?nem.

Noun

confession f (oblique plural confessions, nominative singular confession, nominative plural confessions)

1. confession (the disclosure of one's sins to a clergyman for absolution)

Descendants

• French: confession
  • ? German: Konfession
  • ? Romanian: confesiune
• ? Middle English: confessioun, confession, confessyon, confessyone, confessyown
  • English: confession

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], from Late Old English scryft, Old English s?rift (“penance, shrift; something prescribed as punishment, penalty; one who passes sentence, a judge”), from s?r?fan (“of a priest: to prescribe absolution or penance; to pass judgment, ordain, prescribe; to appoint, decree”) (whence shrive), from Proto-Germanic *skr?ban? (“to write”), from Latin scr?b? (“to write”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kreyb?- (“to scratch, tear”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /???ft/
• Rhymes: -?ft

Noun

shrift (countable and uncountable, plural shrifts)

1. The act of going to or hearing a religious confession.
2. Confession to a priest.
3. (obsolete) Forgiveness given by a priest after confession; remission.
   • circa 1594 CE: William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

     [Friar:] Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift. / Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift.

Derived terms

• short shrift

Related terms

• shrive

Translations

References

Anagrams

• Firths, firths, friths