shrift
UK[ʃrɪft]US[ʃrɪft]
n
The act of confessing sins to a priest or the confession itself.
n
(Archaic) Forgiveness or absolution given by a priest after confession.
Morpheme Breakdown
shrive
t
shrive
verb: to hear confession, impose penance, absolve
t
noun suffix forming verbal nouns
Etymology
The word 'shrift' is a historical fossil, preserving the action noun form of the now-archaic verb 'to shrive'. Its journey begins with the Latin verb 'scribere', meaning "to write," which in the context of ecclesiastical Latin evolved to signify prescribing penances. This sense was adopted into West Germanic and Old English as 'scrīfan', meaning to hear confession and assign penance. The abstract noun 'shrift', formed by adding the native English suffix '-t' (akin to '-th'), thus originally meant "the act of shriving" or "the penance prescribed." Its most famous survival is in the phrase "short shrift," referring historically to the brief time allowed for confession before execution, which evolved into its modern figurative meaning of curt or unsympathetic treatment.
Analysis
Structure: shrive (verb: to hear confession, impose penance, absolve) + t (noun suffix forming verbal nouns)
The morpheme 'shrive' originates from Old English 'scrīfan', meaning "to decree, pass judgment, impose as a penance," from West Germanic and ultimately Latin 'scribere' (to write). The suffix '-t' is a variant of '-th', a noun-forming suffix from Old English, indicating an action or its result.
Examples
In medieval times, a condemned criminal was often granted a moment of shrift before execution.
The phrase "to give short shrift" originally meant to allow only a brief confession.
He made his shrift to the priest, seeking absolution for his actions.