Repentance is deep regret that turns you from wrongdoing. True repentance, show repentance, an act of repentance.
The turning is what distinguishes it from remorse: repentance changes the behaviour where remorse only feels bad, and that distinction is central in Christian and Jewish teaching alike. Courts consider it in sentencing. Note repent, repentant; and that the Latin behind it means to feel regret, from paenitere, which also gives penitent and penitentiary.
1nounrepentanceDeep regret that turns you from wrongdoing.
“The thief showed real repentance and paid back everything he had stolen.”
repentance is a turning from wrongdoing.
Old French repentance comes from repentir, from Latin paenitere, to cause regret. Penitent, penance and penitentiary come from the same regret.
Proto-Indo-European
*peh₁-
Old French
repentance
Middle English
repentance,repentaunce
English, today
repentance
First attested circa 14th century, from Middle English repentance,repentaunce, from Old French repentance. More at repent. by surface analysis, repent + -ance.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA