forgiveness - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Proto-Indo-European *pró

Proto-Indo-European *pro-

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-tus

Middle English forgiveness

English forgiveness

From Middle English forgiveness, forgifnes, from Old English forġiefnes. By surface analysis, forgive +‎ -ness. Cognate with Dutch vergiffenis.

forgiveness (usually uncountable, plural forgivenesses)

  1. The action of forgiving.
    Synonym: remission
    He begged for forgiveness after being caught stealing from the shop.
    • 1850, T. S. Arthur, “Happy on a Little”, in Sketches of Life and Character‎[1], Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 89:
      At the end of a week, she could bear the suspense no longer, and so went humbly to her old home and sought forgiveness.
    • 1907, Albert Ernest Jenks, Ba-Long-Long, The Igorot Boy, page 108:
      It was not a war party, so it surely was men who came to ask for peace and forgiveness.
    • 1913 January, G. E. Reece, “"The Bookman" Prize Competitions § Results of Competitions for December § Forgive!”, in The Bookman, volume XLIII, number 256:
      But Oh! what anguish can more poignant be
      Than of the heart which vainly longs to plead
      Forgiveness from the dead? Shall the dead heed?
    • 2014, Jimmy Carter, “Full Prisons and Legal Killing”, in A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence, and Power‎[2], Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 39:
      Some devout Christians are among the most fervent advocates of the death penalty, contradicting Jesus Christ and misinterpreting Holy Scriptures and numerous examples of mercy. We remember God’s forgiveness of Cain, who killed Abel, and the adulterer King David, who arranged the killing of Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, his lover.
    • 2023 December 10, Andrea Kane, “5 tips to help you flex your forgiveness muscle”, in CNN‎[3]:
      If the incident in question causes you continued distress and negatively impacts your life, that’s where the f-word — forgiveness — may have a role to play, said psychologist Robert Enright, a pioneer in the field of forgiveness science and professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  2. A readiness to forgive.
    Synonym: mercy
    • 1931, Mahatma Gandhi, Young India:
      The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

the action of forgiving