Unshriven

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having died without receiving the final sacrament or absolution from a priest ; lacking spiritual cleansing from sin or guilt
2. Left without the last rites before death ; still burdened by sin and not forgiven in a spiritual sense
3. Not absolved by a priest before dying ; unpurified of wrongdoing and still carrying the weight of guilt

Etymology: "Unshriven" means not having received absolution from a priest after confession, and it is built from "un-" added to "shriven," the past participle of the verb "shrive." That verb comes from Old English "scrifan," meaning to impose a penance or to hear a confession, and it is related to the Latin "scribere," to write, through the idea of a confessor setting down or prescribing what a sinner must do. "Shrive" and its forms, including "shriven," belonged to the vocabulary of the church long before they became mostly literary. The negative prefix is the key to the word's meaning. A person who had confessed and been given penance and absolution was "shriven," and one who had died or been left in that state without this release was "unshriven." Because the concept was tied so closely to the moment before death, the word carries a sense of sin left unforgiven at the end of life, which is why it still appears in writing about dying, judgment, and the fate of the soul.

Synonyms: unconfessed, unabsolved

Antonyms: shriven, absolved