English
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove Tuesday may come from Old English sċrīfan ‘to decree, appoint’.
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sċrīfanas *scrāf‘to decree, appoint’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1712Shrove Tuesday
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Englishc. 450–1150sċrīfanas *scrāf‘to decree, appoint’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1712Shrove Tuesday
Earliest quotation: 1712, Erra Pater, A Prognostication for Ever: “Observe when the Moon is new in February, the…”
The story
The second element is Tuesday; the first element may be a reflex of Old English *scrāf “confession” (related to the modern verb shrive), from the medieval practice of priests hearing confessions on this day.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)kréybʰeti
through Proto-Italic *skreiβō ‘to carve’
prescription, transcript, scripture, inscription, conscription, ascribe, scriptural, transcribe, nondescript, conscript, inscribe, descript, 27 more
through Latin scrībō ‘write’
description, script, prescribe, scribe, scribble, scrivener, 38 more
through Old English sċrīfan ‘to decree, appoint’
Today it means
noun The day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old English sċrīfan / Shrove Tuesday