Other forms: penances
Penance is an act done to show sorrow for a sin. Do penance, an act of penance, as a penance.
In Catholic practice it is the act set after confession, and the point is amendment rather than punishment. In ordinary speech it means any unpleasant thing done to make up for something. Penitence is the feeling and penance is the act.
1nounpenanceAn act done to show sorrow for a sin.
“As a penance, he walked barefoot to the shrine on the hill.”
penance is an act of atonement.
Old French peneance comes from Latin paenitentia, repentance. Penitence and penitentiary are the same root.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₁-
Latin
paenitentia — repentance, penitence
Old French
peneance
Middle English
penaunce
English, today
penance
From Middle English penaunce, from Anglo-Norman -, from Old French peneance, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance, penitence”). a doublet of penitence.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA