penance

From Middle English penaunce, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French peneance, from Latin paenitentia (“penitence”). Doublet of penitence.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛn.əns/

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• Hyphenation: pen‧ance

penance (countable and uncountable, plural penances)

1. A voluntary self-imposed punishment for a sinful act or wrongdoing. It may be intended to serve as reparation for the act.
   • 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:

     Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, / And penance more will do."

2. A sacrament in some Christian churches.
3. Any instrument of self-punishment.
4. (obsolete) repentance
5. (obsolete) pain; sorrow; suffering

• penitence
• atonement

penance (third-person singular simple present penances, present participle penancing, simple past and past participle penanced)

1. To impose penance; to punish.
   • 1819, John Keats, “Lamia”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, part I, page 6:

     She seem'd, at once, some penanced lady elf, / Some demon mistress, or the demon's self.

penance

1. pain; sorrow; suffering
   • c. 1380s, [Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton, editor], The Double Sorow of Troylus to Telle Kyng Pryamus Sone of Troye [...] [Troilus and Criseyde], [Westminster]: Explicit per Caxton, published 1482, →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], book IV, [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     ne Joy nor penance he feeleth none.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)