The following is a real life example from academic discourse taking place in January of 2002. On medieval e-mail lists, I have watched some debate among scholars about how the idea of "repentence" became so prominent in late medieval culture, and thus the question arose concerning where this word and concept originated. The trouble was that nobody agreed. Various sources offered varying etymologies. Different scholars offered differing theories concerning its origin. Some said the word was originally Latin. Others that the word was not Latin, but developed parallel to it from an older Greek or Indo-European source. Some said it originally meant "to rethink" or "to reweigh." Others said imeant "to feel regret." Others said that according to ministers it was originally associated with a Latin military phrase meaning "to turn away."

I reproduce the e-mail exchanges and some dictionary entries below. Suppose you needed to give the etymology of "repentence" in a paper you would writing. What is the "real" etymology? How would you choose which scholar, which dictionary or which source to trust? I list three dictionaries first, and then I list the e-mail exchanges from various scholars:

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Message Number One:
From: Pierre R Lafleur [mailto:lafpr@TOTAL.NET]
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 5:07 AM
To: CHAUCER@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
Subject: Re: Dies Natalis:

 

I am alike curious to uncover the source of this aberration [in meaning]. For instance, to REPENT only signifies to RETHINK [a la French Repenser] and has no truck with shame, blame, regret, whips, hair shirts, etc. I suspect that we are wrestling with an after-taste of medieval masochism, e.g.: Marjorie Kemp, Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena and of course a (pun alert) host of apparent males in skirts. (my apologies to the pc mice, but I'm too old to change and don't care to anyway).

 

p-
Pierre R Lafleur,
Ph.D. candidate.
alt: pierre.r.lafleur@umontreal.ca

 

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Message Number Two:

 

From: Alan Baragona [BaragonaA@MAIL.VMI.EDU 01/21/02 16:52 PM]
Sent: Monday, January 21,
To: kwheeler@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Subject: TAN "repent"

 

Actually, "repent" does not mean "rethink" etymologically (maybe back to Indo-European; I haven't checked that far, but I doubt it). Latin "paeniteo" meant the same thing as its modern descendant "repent." It's not the same word as "penso," which gave French "penser" and eventually English "pensive." The latter has to do with literal and then metaphorical weighing. "Paeniteo" has to do with feeling sorrow and always has. See the Oxford English Dictionary.
Alan B.

 

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Message Number Three:
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 00:08:44 -0500
From: Landie Harris <salgadll@MUOHIO.EDU>
Reply-To: Chaucer Discussion Group <CHAUCER@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU>
To: CHAUCER@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU
Subject: Re: TAN "Repent"

 

I was taught in Sunday school that "repent" was a command used by the Roman military which called for a turn of 180 degrees, an "about face." Likewise, to "repent" of one's sins, then, was to make a turn away from them towards God. The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] says this about the Greek "metanoia": [to change one's mind, to repent.]

Penitence, repentance; reorientation of one's way of life, spiritual conversion.
1873 M. ARNOLD Lit. & Dogma vii. 196 Of 'metanoia', as Jesus used the word, the lamenting one's sins was a small part; the main part was something more active and fruitful, the setting up an immense new inward movement for obtaining the rule of life. And 'metanoia', accordingly, is: a change of the inner man. 1881 Amer. Church Rev. July 167 What a Metanoia was there, to both Jesus and John!.. And what a Metanoia had come also upon the disciples of John and upon Israel! 1918 Encycl. Relig. & Ethics X. 733/2 'Repentance' has an emotional tone; [...] is ethical and intellectual; the former is negative[]a turning away from sin; the latter is positive[]an enthusiasm for righteousness. 1939 V. A. DEMANT Relig. Prospect ix. 237 If we understand St. Paul's use of the word 'spiritual', not in our misleading sense of 'non-material' but as the nature of a creature turned to God, we see how this metanoia, this turning about, brings a restored understanding of the order of human powers and faculties. 1945 A. HUXLEY Let. 10 Apr. (1969) 520 Virgil's metanoia was in the nature of a death-bed repentance. 1969 F. DE GRAEVE in J. Kerkhofs Mod. Mission Dialogue p. xvi, It must reveal the Church..as the community in which the religious intentionality of all people can blossom into that newness of life that is the real metanoia. 1973 E. POWELL No Easy Answers xii. 123 To entertain this idea and to be penetrated with it is the change of mind, repentance, metanoia, of which the baptist was not the announcer but the forerunner."