confessional

confessional¹ relating to confession

Etymology tree of confessional¹

inherited borrowed derived

English confession

English confessional

Etymology

The word meaning “relating to confession” is formed from English confession + -al.^[2][3][4][5] According to Etymonline and the Middle English Dictionary, it is borrowed from Medieval Latin cōnfessiōnālis;^[6][7] the OED compares modern French confessionel.^[2] Confession is from French confession, from Latin cōnfessiō (“acknowledgement”), a noun of action from cōnfiteor (“to acknowledge”),^[2][6] formed from com- (“together”) and fateor (“to admit”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to the right of hearing confessions and granting absolution: in 1447, in a document of the Northern Convocation, of a dispensation, “quinquenal or other confessional”.^[7] Etymonline dates the adjective to the mid-15th century^[6] and the Shorter Oxford to late Middle English;^[3] the OED, whose entry has not been fully revised, records it only from 1817.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the right to hear confession the word passed in the late 16th century to a noun, a due paid for hearing confession or for permission to hear it, recorded only in 1570.^[2][3][8] The general sense "of or relating to confession" is dated to 1684 by Merriam-Webster Unabridged^[5] and to 1817, in Nathan Drake's book on Shakespeare, by the OED.^[2] In the late 19th century it came to refer to Confessions of Faith and the systems of theology built on them (1884), and in 1907 it took the sense denominational.^[2][3][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records its use for intimately autobiographical writing.^[5]

Timeline

• 1447 – relating to the right of hearing confessions and granting absolution.^[7]
• 1570 – noun, a due for hearing confession or for permission to hear it (obsolete).^[2][8]
• 1684 – of or relating to confession.^[5] The OED records this sense from 1817.^[2]
• 1884 – relating to Confessions of Faith or systems of formulated theology.^[2]
• 1907 – denominational; holding a certain system of doctrines.^[2][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to or of the nature of a confession, especially of sins or of faith.^[5][2][9]
2. Based on or adhering to a confession of faith; denominational: confessional loyalties in the region.^[5][2][3]
3. Of writing: intimately autobiographical: a confessional memoir.^[5]

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1570) A fee for hearing confession or for permission to hear it.^[2][3]

Word family

• confessionally
• confessionalism
• confessionalist

confessional² priest's booth

Etymology

The word for the priest's booth is borrowed from French confessional,^{[2][6][3][10]} which Merriam-Webster gives as confessionnal.^[5][11] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English trace the French word to Italian confessionale,^[3][4] which the OED compares.^[2] Its source is Medieval Latin cōnfessiōnāle, the neuter of the adjective cōnfessiōnālis used as a noun,^[2][6][3][5] which Du Cange quotes from 1563 for the sacred tribunal of penance.^[2] The adjective is from Latin cōnfessiō, from cōnfiteor (“to acknowledge”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stall or box in which a priest sits to hear confessions: 1727 in Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged;^[6][5] the OED's first quotation is from 1728, in Ephraim Chambers's Cyclopædia.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Shortly before, the word had been used, in 1705 by Joseph Addison in his remarks on Italy, for the confession of a church, the crypt or tomb of a martyr beneath the high altar; the OED records this sense only to 1728.^[2][8] Merriam-Webster Unabridged keeps the sense and traces it to Late Latin cōnfessiō (“tomb of a martyr”).^[5][11] Johnson (1755), however, read Addison's “a pulpit and confessional, very finely inlaid with lapis-lazuli” as the seat or box in which the confessor hears his penitents.^[10][2] From 1816, in Byron's Siege of Corinth, the confessional stood for the practice of confession itself,^[2][5] and it was used attributively, as in confessional-box, from 1792.^[2] Collins also records it for a book of penitential prayers.^[9]

Timeline

• 1705 – the crypt or tomb of a martyr under the high altar (obsolete by 1728).^[2][8]
• 1727 – a stall or box in which a priest hears confessions.^[6][5] The OED first records it in 1728.^[2]
• 1792 – attributive, as in confessional-box.^[2]
• 1816 – the practice of confession to a priest.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An enclosed booth or stall, usually divided by a screen or curtain, in which a priest hears confessions, especially in the Roman Catholic Church: She waited her turn outside the confessional.^{[9][5][2][10]}
2. The practice of confessing to a priest.^[5][2]
3. A book of penitential prayers.^[9]
4. (obsolete, 1705–1728) The crypt or tomb of a martyr beneath the high altar of a church.^[2][5]