contrition

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English contricioun, also contrycyun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French contriciun (“contrition, remorse; a break, breach”)^[4][3][5] and directly borrowed from Late Latin contrītiō (“a grinding, a bruising; grief, contrition”).^[3][5][6] The Anglo-Norman noun, recorded from the first half of the 12th century, already meant both a break or devastation and remorse for sin.^[7] The Late Latin noun comes from Latin conterō (“to grind, bruise”), through its past participle contrītus (“ground, bruised”),^[4][5][6] which is formed from com- (“with, together”) and terō (“to rub, grind”),^[5][3] from Proto-Indo-European *tere- (“to rub, turn”).^[3] Contrite continues the same participle, and trite goes back to the simple verb.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Deep sorrow for a sin or wrong: about 1303, in Mannyng (He hadde grete sorowe and contrycyun), in a manuscript of before 1400;^[2] Etymonline likewise dates it to about 1300, and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.^[3][8] The oldest manuscript the Middle English Dictionary quotes is a psalter of about 1350, with contriciouns for contritiones.^[2] The first record in the OED is from Chaucer's Parson's Tale (about 1386).^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense "sorrow for sin" is a figurative use from Christian writing, the heart being pictured as crushed by a sense of guilt.^[3][4] In the Parson's Tale Chaucer defines the word as "the verray sorwe that a man receyueth in his herte",^[2] and he has it 29 times, against a single use in Gower.^[9] The literal Latin sense also came into English, as a crushing in the mid-14th century^[3] and as the rubbing or pounding of things until they are powdered, a use the OED follows until 1684.^[4] Johnson (1755) still listed "the act of grinding" first, quoting Newton, before penitence.^[10] The word has since widened from sin to any deeply felt remorse, though it remains a technical term of Christian teaching.^[11][4][6]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – deep sorrow for sin, in Mannyng.^[2] Etymonline dates it to about 1300, and the first record in the OED is about 1386.^[3][4]
• mid-14th century – the literal sense, a crushing.^[3] The OED dates the action of grinding or bruising from about 1384 to 1684.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Deep remorse for having done wrong; penitence: Her letter of apology showed real contrition.^[11][12][13]
2. (Christianity) Hatred of one's past sins with a resolve to put them right, out of love of God (perfect contrition) or hope of heaven (imperfect contrition).^[11][6]
3. (obsolete, c. 1384–1684) The action of grinding or rubbing something to powder.^{[4][13][10][14]}

Related words

• contrite
• attrition
• trite

Usage notes

In theology contrition is set against attrition, the imperfect repentance that Johnson says is produced by dread of hell.^[10][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
13. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press