shrive

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English shriven, also schriven and scriven,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English scrīfan (“to allot, decree, impose as a sentence or penance”),^[5][6][7][3] strong (past scrāf, past participle scrifen),^[6][3] from Proto-Germanic *skrībaną, which most dictionaries take as an early borrowing from Latin scrībō (“to write”).^{[3][8][9][4][10][11][12]} Its cognates are Old Frisian skrīva (“to write; to impose penance”), Old Saxon skrīban (“to write”), Middle Dutch scrīven (modern schrijven), Old High German scrīban (“to write, paint, prescribe”) (modern schreiben) and Old Norse skrifa (“to paint, write”).^{[5][4][7][13]} The OED notes that the word is common Germanic but wanting in Gothic.^[5] Orel doubts the borrowing, thinking the Germanic verb at most influenced in meaning by the Latin one.^[14] Some Germanic languages developed the sense to impose penance or to confess;^[15][3][5] Danish skrifte (“to confess”) and skript (“penance, confession”) show the same development.^[3][13][16] It is related to scribe and to shrift.^[4][13][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Old English, to impose penance on someone, and hence to absolve and to hear the confession of: the OED's first record is in the Confessionale Ecgberti.^[5][6] Barnhart dates the Old English verb, in the senses to assign, decree and impose penance, to before 776.^[4][17]

Semantic evolution

In Old English the verb could mean to allot, to pass sentence, or to care for something, besides its church sense.^[6][3][5] Only the church sense survived into Middle English, where it was recorded probably before 1200 as scriven and schrifen;^[4] the penitent's side, to make one's confession, is found from the early 13th century, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5][7] Chaucer used it in Troilus and Criseyde for confessing or laying bare something more generally, a sense that died out by 1635.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as to hear at confession, quoting Shakespeare, and in 1773 added "Not in use".^[18] From the early 17th century it was also used poetically of relieving a mind or heart of a burden.^[10][5] The word is now archaic;^[4][10] Ayto notes that it is best known through its past tense in Shrove Tuesday, an allusion to going to confession at the beginning of Lent, and through the noun shrift.^[15] A noun shrive, used for shrift, appears in 1867, in Ouida.^[5]

Timeline

• Old English – to impose penance on; to hear the confession of and absolve.^[5][6]
• c. 1200 – passive, to be confessed of a sin.^[5]
• c. 1225 – reflexive, to go to confession, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[5]
• before 1300 – intransitive, to confess one's sins; transitive, to confess sins (obsolete by 1450), both in the Cursor Mundi.^[5]
• c. 1374 – to confess or renounce more generally, in Chaucer (obsolete by 1635).^[5]
• 1607 – in extended use, outside confession.^[5]
• 1867 – noun shrive, shrift.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic) To hear the confession of a penitent, impose a penance and grant absolution: The priest shrived the dying soldier.^[9][19][10]
2. (archaic) To confess one's sins to a priest, in order to be absolved.^[19][10][5]
3. To free from guilt or from a burden; to purge.^[9][10]
4. (archaic) Of a priest, to hear confessions.^[9][10]

Word family

• shriver
• unshrived
• Shrovetide
• Shrove Tuesday

Related words

• scribe
• shrift
• script

Usage notes

The verb's past tense is shrove or shrived, and its past participle shriven or shrived.^[19][9] In Kent dialect a verb shrive meant to prune trees, clearing the small branches from the trunk.^[20]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
13. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
19. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
20. ^ 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)