To give someone ‘short shrift’ means ‘to make short work of; to dismiss rapidly and unsympathetically’ (Oxford).
The Collins Dictionary says that if someone is given ‘short shrift’ it means that very little attention is paid to them, while the Cambridge Dictionary says it means that they are treated without sympathy.
The big American dictionary, the Merriam-Webster says that ‘short shrift’ means ‘summary treatment: little consideration.’
All of which, I suppose, are pointing in pretty much the same direction.
But where does this come from? And what is a ‘shrift’? Well, we have to go back into history to find the answer.
More than a thousand years ago, in the days of Old English, ‘shrift’ meant a penance imposed by a priest following confession.
It might originally have meant a ‘prescribed penalty (or penance)’ in the sense of something that is written down—perhaps influenced by the structural similarity between ‘shrift’ and ‘script’ (meaning ‘written down’).
And that’s where our phrase ‘short shrift’ started.
‘Short shrift’ is recorded from 1597 when it originally meant ‘a brief space of time allowed for a criminal to make his or her confession before execution’ (Oxford again).
And it’s not hard to see how, from that beginning, ‘short shrift’ could come to have the meaning is has to today (giving you ‘short shrift’ means giving little time and even less attention).
The noun ‘shrift’ seems to come from the verb ‘to shrive.’
This came into English from an old Germanic word—and that source word had the meaning of ‘to adjudge; to impose a penalty or a penance.’
In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales there is a character called The Pardoner who does exactly this—he ‘shrives’ people.
He is a travelling friar who is licenced to sell papal pardons or indulgences.
Apparently in those days it was a profitable business to offer people ‘shrift’ (short or otherwise).
Tonight I will join John Stanley on 2GB, 4BC, 2CC and the Nine Radio Network for 'The Word Clinic (right after the 10p news--9pm in Queensland). Join us and ask any question you wish about words and language.
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