repentir

Forms

repentir^[1] Anglo-Norman repenter, repentyr and respentir.^[2] Old French also had the nouns repentie, repentise and repentison.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French repentir, inherited from Late Latin repoeniteō (recorded from the 9th century), with a change of conjugation.^[4][5][6] The Late Latin verb is formed with the intensive prefix re- on poeniteō, an alteration under the influence of Latin poena (“penalty, pain”) of Classical paeniteō (“to cause regret, be displeased with oneself”); the Latin verb was used reflexively from the 3rd century.^[4][5][7][8] Wiktionary gives the chain as *repaenitiō, from Late Latin paenitiō.^[1]

Beside it Old French had peneïr and Old Occitan penedir, closer to the Latin and with a moral and religious meaning.^[6][5] Cognate with Italian pentirsi and Catalan penedir-se, from the unprefixed verb.^[6][5]

The noun is the infinitive used as a noun, recorded from about 1160.^[5][9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Chanson de Roland (about 1100) soi repentir de with an infinitive means “to give up, stop doing”, a sense that died out in Middle French; the same poem already uses it for showing regret for a wrong done.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense, regret for one's sins with the wish to make amends, is attested from 1119 in Philippe de Thaon, and se repentir de ses péchés about 1155 in Wace.^[4][9] From about 1140 the verb also meant to regret bitterly a decision or something done.^[4][5] The threat il s'en repentira “he'll be sorry for it” is recorded from 1559.^[5][9]

The noun repentir (about 1160) named the act of regretting a fault and promising to make up for it, and by the end of the 12th century regret for any action; it supplanted repentance outside religious use.^[5][9] Un repentir is a single show of repentance (1640).^[5] In painting a repentir is a change made while a work was being executed (1798), whence droit de repentir, first said of a writer's corrections (about 1860, Baudelaire) and later, in law, of an author's right over a work not yet assigned (1966).^[5][9] In 19th-century fashion the word named a corkscrew curl hanging at each side of the face, a sense now forgotten.^[5][10]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – Soi repentir “to give up” and “to regret a wrong” in the Chanson de Roland.^[4]
• 1119 – Philippe de Thaon uses it of sinners who repent.^[4]
• c. 1140 – First used for regretting a decision or deed, in the Voyage de Charlemagne.^[4]
• c. 1160 – The infinitive is used as a noun, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[9][5]
• 1318 – Les Repenties names an order for women who had left a dissolute life.^[4]
• 1559 – The threat il s'en repentira appears, in Amyot.^[9][5]
• 1798 – The Académie records the noun for a painter's alteration.^[9][5]
• 1836 – A repentir is a curl of hair, in Théophile Gautier.^[10]
• 1966 – Larousse records droit de repentir in law.^[9][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. Se repentir: to repent, to feel regret for a fault or sin with the wish not to repeat it and to make amends.^[11][4]
2. Se repentir: to regret a decision or an action, to wish one had not done it.^[11][4]
3. Il s'en repentira: used as a threat or warning, “he will be sorry”.^[5][3]

Noun

1. Repentance, keen regret for a fault together with the wish to atone.^[11][9]
2. Regret for any action, even a blameless one.^[11][9]
3. (art) A pentimento, a change made by the artist during the execution of a painting or drawing.^[9][1]
4. Droit de repentir (law): an author's right to withdraw or alter a work not yet assigned to a third party.^[9][5]
5. (dated) A corkscrew curl hanging at the side of the face.^[5][10]

Word family

• repentance
• repentant
• repenti

Related words

• pénitence
• pénitent
• peine
• Latin paeniteō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 9, 118b
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
10. ^ a b c Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF
11. ^ a b c d Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert