penitence

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English penitence, also penitaunce,^[2] borrowed from Old French penitence, also Anglo-Norman penitence,^[3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin paenitentia (“regret, repentance”).^[5][6][2] The French word was at first a learned word of the Church, which gradually displaced peneance, the source of penance.^[3] The Latin noun is formed from paenitēns (“penitent”), the present participle of paeniteō (“to cause or feel regret”).^[5][6][7] It was also written poenitentia, which Merriam-Webster Unabridged attributes to the influence of poena (“penalty, pain”).^[7][3] Etymonline thinks the verb first meant "is not enough" and derives it from paene (“nearly, almost”), Hoad only suggests the link, and Barnhart calls the verb of unknown origin.^[5][8][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both main senses, the state of repentance and the discipline undertaken to express it, appear before 1200 in the Trinity Homilies.^[3][2] Barnhart cites the Ancrene Riwle, probably before 1200,^[6] and Etymonline dates the word to c. 1200.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Anglo-Norman had the word from 1120–40, already covering repentance, penance and the sacrament.^[4] Middle English took over the same range, down to an act of penance set by the Church.^[2] Chaucer uses it 46 times,^[9] and his Parson's Tale defines it as "verray repentance of a man that halt hym self in sorwe and oother peyne for his giltes".^[2] Some dictionaries date the inward sense much later, Hoad to the 16th century and the Shorter Oxford to the late 15th, but the revised OED and the Middle English Dictionary find it before 1200.^{[8][10][3][2]} Johnson (1755) defines the word as sorrow for sin together with a change of life,^[11] and the outward sense is now rare.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1200 – the state of being sorry for sin, with the intention to amend; repentance.^[3][2]
• before 1200 – a discipline undergone as an outward sign of repentance; penance.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Sorrow or regret for one's sins or wrongdoing, with the wish to do better; repentance: His penitence seemed sincere to the court.^[12][7][3]
2. (rare) A penance, a discipline undergone to express repentance.^[7][3][10]

Word family

• penitency

Related words

• penance
• penitent
• penitentiary

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary groups it with compunction, contrition, remorse and repentance, all of which name a feeling of regret for one's sins or misdeeds.^[12]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
10. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt