shriving means the hearing of a confession of sins. It carries an Arena rating of 1649, earned across 8 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, shriving ranks #2,295 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,832 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,980 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #3,153 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
Why “shriving” is a great word
The penitential sacrament in which a priest hears a confession, assigns penance, and grants absolution. From Middle English schryvynge, from shrive (from Old English scrīfan, "to prescribe, impose a penance, hear a confession") + the noun-forming suffix -ing. Unlike "confession," the penitent's solitary disclosure, or "absolution," the priest's declarative release, shriving is the connective ritual—the listening, the counsel, the assigned penance that bridges the two. It is the cool wood of the screen against a fevered forehead, the measured silence after the recitation of faults, and the low, steady murmur of voice answering voice in the shadows; it is the architecture of grace built upon a foundation of spoken guilt, where the burden of a soul is momentarily held in another's hands before being formally set down.
Etymology
From Middle English schryvynge; equivalent to shrive + -ing.
noun
- The hearing of a confession of sins.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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