Forgiveness

[piratechan]

Nothing bad has happened, I just got to thinking about the word "forgive". It's rather an odd word, since it means to no longer blame someone for whatever, but it looks like "for" and "give" and I don't get what you're giving really. Or maybe it's "fore" and "give" like you're giving something ahead of time. But I don't even really think of it

Comments

[muffinsicon]

I always thought of forgiving as fore-giving in the sense that you're giving somebody your future attention and benefit of the doubt. When I forgive someone, it means I'm GIVing them another chance...that's another chance at the future.

[piratechan]

I like this definition.

[demon_cat]

Curious, so I had to go and look it up in the Online Etymology Dictionary:

O.E. forgiefan "give, grant, allow," also "to give up" and "to give in marriage;" from for- "completely" + giefan "give" (see give). The modern sense of "to give up desire or power to punish" is from use of the compound as a Gmc. loan-translation of L. perdonare (cf. Du. vergeven, Ger. vergeben; see pardon).

[piratechan]

Peculiar. I had not heard of "for" meaning "completely". I wonder where that came from...

[cardboard_dream]

It's been around forever.

[piratechan]

Teehee! But doesn't the "ever" take care of the "completely" part?