Redempcioun

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for the buying back of a captive or a pledged possession by paying a ransom ; the spiritual rescue of humankind from sin through divine grace
2. The paying of a price to free a captive or reclaim a pledge ; the saving of souls from wickedness and their restoration to God's favour
3. A ransom paid to recover a person or property held in bondage ; the delivery of the faithful from sin and damnation by Christ's sacrifice

Etymology: Middle English "redempcioun" is the spelling of "redemption" in the form used by Chaucer's contemporaries, and it arrived in English in the late 1300s, borrowed from Old French "redemption" (or its Anglo-Norman spelling), which came from the Latin "redemptio," meaning "a buying back" or "ransom." The Latin noun is built from "re-," here meaning "back," and "emptio," a "buying," from "emere," "to buy" or "to take." So the word began as a commercial term for paying to recover something that had been pledged or captured. Its religious sense came early. Church Latin used "redemptio" to describe Christ's sacrifice as the payment that freed humanity from sin, and English writers in the Middle Ages took up the term in that theological meaning. The commercial sense of recovering property by payment survived alongside it, which is why English can speak of redeeming a pawned watch or a coupon with the same root that describes salvation.