shrive
/ʃrʌɪv
/- In the week immediately before lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him and make pancakes.
- Pascal accompanies the priest on his regular visit to shrive the residents of the local mental hospital, and finds himself hearing one of the confessions, almost but not quite by accident.
- Without the direct intervention of God's angels, William cannot recognize it and be shriven of it.
- Moreover, contrition must be continual, and a man must keep and hold a steadfast purpose to shrive himself and to amend his way of life.
- And if he live until his last day, scarcely then may he shrive himself or then remember his sins, or repent of them, because of the grievous malady about to cause his death.
Origin
Old English scrīfan 'impose as a penance', of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schrijven and German schreiben 'write', from Latin scribere 'write'.
shrift from Old English:
To give someone short shrift is to treat them in a curt and dismissive way. The phrase originally referred to the short time that a condemned criminal was allowed to make their confession to a priest and be shriven, prescribed a penance, and absolved of their sins, before being executed. Its first use in the literal sense comes in Shakespeare's Richard III: ‘Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.’ The Shrove in Shrove Tuesday is a form of shriven. As the day before the start of Lent, it is marked by feasting and celebration before the Lent fast begins. In Britain people eat pancakes on the day, giving the alternative name Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday. Other countries celebrate it as the carnival of Mardi Gras, French for ‘Fat Tuesday’. See also carnival