Forgiveness is letting go of the right to stay angry with somebody. Ask for forgiveness, grant forgiveness, beg forgiveness.
It does not require forgetting, and it does not require the other person to deserve it — which is what makes it hard and what most writing about it turns on. It is central to Christian teaching and to much of the work done in restorative justice. Note forgive, past tense forgave; forgivable; and the saying that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission, which is advice about bureaucracy rather than about morals.
1nounforgivenessLetting go of the right to stay angry.
“Forgiveness took her about fifteen years and arrived all at once.”
forgiveness is a letting go.
Old English forgiefnes is for-, meaning completely or away, plus giefan, to give. To forgive is to give away — the debt, the grievance, the claim — which is the plainest possible description of the act.
Old English
forġiefnes
Middle English
forgiveness
English, today
forgiveness
From Middle English forgiveness, from Old English forġiefnes. From Middle English forgiveness,forgifnes, from Old English forġiefnes. by surface analysis, forgive + -ness. Cognate with Dutch vergiffenis.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA