different between indulgence vs forgiveness

English

Etymology

From Middle French indulgence, or its source, Latin indulgentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?d?ld???ns/
• Hyphenation: in?dul?gence

Noun

indulgence (countable and uncountable, plural indulgences)

1. the act of indulging
   • 1654, Henry Hammond, Of Fundamentals...

     will all they that either through indulgence to others or fondness to any sin in themselves, substitute for repentance any thing that is less than a sincere, uniform resolution of new obedience
2. tolerance
3. catering to someone's every desire
4. something in which someone indulges
5. An indulgent act; favour granted; gratification.
   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Goodness of God a Motive to Repentance

     If all these gracious indulgences are without any effect on us, we must perish in our own folly.

6. (Roman Catholicism) A pardon or release from the expectation of punishment in purgatory, after the sinner has been granted absolution.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, p. 555:

     To understand how indulgences were intended to work depends on linking together a number of assumptions about sin and the afterlife, each of which individually makes considerable sense.

Related terms

• indulge
• indulgent

Translations

Verb

indulgence (third-person singular simple present indulgences, present participle indulgencing, simple past and past participle indulgenced)

1. (transitive, Roman Catholic Church) to provide with an indulgence

French

Noun

indulgence f (plural indulgences)

1. leniency, clemency
2. (Roman Catholicism) indulgence

English

Etymology

From Middle English forgiveness, forgifnes, from Old English for?ifnes, for?iefnes, for?iefennes (“forgiveness, remission, indulgence, permission”, literally “forgivenness”), equivalent to forgiven +? -ness. Cognate with Dutch vergiffenis.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /f????vn?s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f????vn?s/
• Hyphenation: for?give?ness

Noun

forgiveness (usually uncountable, plural forgivenesses)

1. The action of forgiving.
   • 1931, Mahatma Gandhi, Young India

     The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

2. Readiness to forgive.

Synonyms

• (action of forgiving): remission
• (readiness to forgive): mercy

Translations

References

• forgiveness in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.