repentance

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English repentaunce,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Anglo-Norman repentaunce, also repentance, as in Old French repentance (“penitence”),^[6][2] formed from repentir (“to repent”) and the suffix -ance.^[6][2] Klein and Merriam-Webster derive it from the present participle repentant, on the model of pairs such as abundant and abundance.^[4][5] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1121–25, already with reference to sins.^[7][6] The French verb is formed from re- and pentir (“to be sorry”),^[8][9] from Vulgar Latin *paenitiō, from paeniteō (“to make sorry, regret”).^[8][9][2] The OED compares ripentanza.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of repenting, sorrow for one's sins: about 1300, in a life of St Thomas Becket.^[6] Etymonline also dates it to about 1300, for the state of being penitent, with sorrow for sin leading to its abandonment,^[2] and Dictionary.com to 1300–50.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense came with the word, since the Anglo-Norman noun was already used of sins.^[6][7] From about 1400, in Langland's Piers Plowman, Repentance also appears as a personification, a use the OED follows to 1819.^[6] Johnson (1755) distinguished sorrow for anything past from sorrow for sin "such as produces newness of life", which he equated with penitence.^[10] The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, stressed that repentance goes beyond feeling to a purpose of turning from sin.^[2] In Scotland the stool of repentance (from 1581) and the place of repentance (from 1582) were seats or platforms in church where offenders did public penance,^[6][11] and Wright's dialect dictionary also records the repentance-gown, a coarse linen gown worn for it.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – the action of repenting; contrition for sin.^[6][2]
• c. 1400 – Repentance personified, in Langland's Piers Plowman (obsolete by 1819).^[6]
• 1581 – in Scotland, the stool of repentance.^[6]
• 1582 – in Scotland, the place of repentance.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of repenting; sincere regret or remorse for past wrongdoing: Her repentance came too late to save the friendship.^[8][5][6]
2. In religion, contrition for one's sins together with a resolve to turn from them and amend one's life.^[5][2][10]
3. stool of repentance (historical, Scotland): a seat placed in view in a church for an offender doing public penance.^[6][11][12]

Word family

• nonrepentance

Related words

• repent
• repentant
• penitence
• penitent
• penance

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b 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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)