{"id":22538,"date":"2022-11-18T21:14:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-18T21:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=22538"},"modified":"2022-11-18T21:33:36","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T21:33:36","slug":"short-shrift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=22538","title":{"rendered":"Short Shrift"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I heard the expression <strong>short shrift<\/strong> being used, and started wondering what a <strong>shrift<\/strong> might be, and why it\u2019s a short one that\u2019s usually given or received.<\/p>\n<p>The expression <strong>to give short shrift<\/strong> means to ignore, disregard or exclude (sb\/sth); to give (sb\/sth) very little time or attention. For example \u201cDespite its urgency, ministers are giving the issue short shrift in parliament.\u201d [<a href=\"https:\/\/idioms.thefreedictionary.com\/give+short+shrift\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>shrift<\/strong> means the act of going to or hearing a religious confession; a confession to a priest, or forgiveness given by a priest after confession. It comes from the Middle English <em>shrift<\/em>  (confession, penitence, repentance), from the Old English <em>s\u010brift<\/em> (penance, penalty, a judge), from <em>s\u010br\u012bfan<\/em> (to prescribe absolution or penance; to pass judgment), from the Proto-Germanic <em>*skr\u012bban\u0105<\/em> (to write), from the Latin <em>scr\u012bb\u014d<\/em> (I write), from the Proto-Indo-European <em>*(s)kreyb\u02b0-<\/em> (to scratch, tear) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/shrift\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/palmasco\/320491406\/in\/photolist-ujAVU-6d4nNR-56kV7D-QiZKM2-onrmq2-4YusUV-ntkKuf-4i4f2S-bjdjM-jLw8k-iQxoZN-Q8CT5F-2R6BTU-7tMKjv-2cQSGqb-aa7p7-2jLDVno-jGDvA-2iQqvqj-jGDvq-KpqL69-jGDvu-aeJ8Zh-jGDvg-jGDv4-jGDv9-tSQjTw-azgQNE-acGy9K-tAzGTL-2jwRBQp-23bKBLL-7yJZmv-3iKMUq-QnMAHh-4dfYz4-4GyNd3-62DkbX-78Kx5-ai8Tuz-4s4MJ4-6cdv2B-7c1VYt-3eo5sD-5YRtDU-6dWvwC-PatxYX-2kz6mqM-8ZzkHx-9yXdQ3\" title=\"confessions\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/141\/320491406_d1e3d2faed_z.jpg\" alt=\"confessions\" width=\"640\" height=\"440\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Short shrift<\/strong> is a rushed sacrament of confession given to a prisoner who is to be executed very soon; a speedy execution, usually without any proper determination of guilt; a short interval of relief or time, or something dealt with or overcome quickly and without difficulty [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/short_shrift#English\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>The word <strong>shrive<\/strong> (to hear or receive a confession; to prescribe penance or absolution) comes from the same roots [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/shrove#English\">source<\/a>]. So does <strong>shrove<\/strong>, an old word that means to join the fesitivities of Shrovetide or to make merry. It appears in the name <strong>Shrove Tuesday<\/strong>, the day before the beginning of Lent, also known as <strong>Pancake Day<\/strong>, <strong>Mardi Gras<\/strong>, <strong>Fat Tuesday<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Shrove_Tuesday#English\">source<\/a>] or <strong>Jif Lemon Day<\/strong> [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ianvisits.co.uk\/articles\/dont-forget-the-pancakes-on-jif-lemon-day-53\/\">source<\/a>]. Other names are probably available.<\/p>\n<p>So now we know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I heard the expression short shrift being used, and started wondering what a shrift might be, and why it\u2019s a short one that\u2019s usually given or received. The expression to give short shrift means to ignore, disregard or exclude (sb\/sth); to give (sb\/sth) very little time or attention. For example \u201cDespite its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,10,15,26,33,44,45,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-latin","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-proto-germanic","category-proto-indo-european","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22538"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22544,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22538\/revisions\/22544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}