Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. No Archives Categories. Today shrift, the noun form of shrive, makes up half of short shrift, a phrase meaning 'little or no consideration.' Originally, short shrift was the barely adequate time for confession before an execution.
Did You Know? We wouldn't want to give the history of shrive short shrift, so here's the whole story. Tugan kunge arnalgan tilekter. It began when the Latin verb scribere (meaning 'to write') found its way onto the tongues of certain Germanic peoples who brought it to Britain in the early Middle Ages. Because it was often used for laying down directions or rules in writing, 8th-century Old English speakers used their form of the term, scrīfan, to mean 'to prescribe or impose.'
The Church adopted scrīfan to refer to the act of assigning penance to sinners and, later, to hearing confession and administering absolution. Today shrift, the noun form of shrive, makes up half of short shrift, a phrase meaning 'little or no consideration.' Originally, short shrift was the barely adequate time for confession before an execution.