Making it all Better – Etymology of Expiate

Hello,

A surprising number of words exist around the idea of making good our misdeeds – atonement, appease, reparation, amends, expiate, propitiate, satisfy, penance. Today’s word, again with thanks to the Teen Book Club at Academy Books is expiate. I’m enjoying investigating their favourite words as most of them are words I use infrequently. I don’t know if I’ve ever said expiate aloud!

Chapel ceiling in Christchurch cathedral, Dublin

I happened upon an example of expiate in use which I love. It’s from a translation (by Thomas Norton) in 1561 of Calvin’s “Institutes of Christian Religion” –

“The sacrifice of expiation is that which tendeth to appease the wrath of God.”

We really don’t read sentences with tendeth anymore, do we? Appeasing the wrath of God has somewhat fallen out of use too, in many places, although we all sometimes need to make amends when we’ve said or done something to hurt others, so expiation is still needed.

Expiate is defined as showing you’re sorry for bad behaviour by doing something or accepting punishment. The word has been with us since the early 1400s. It entered English directly from Latin expiationem and the verb expiare (to make amends for). Expiare was formed from ex and piare. Piare (propitiate) comes from pius (faithful, devout) which may be drawn from purus (pure), also in Latin. Ex has a vary of uses when forming the start of a word but in this case it’s likely to be out, up, or from – the idea being that expiare as a verb was to bring out more piousness, to be extra good, and hence to make amends for the fault or sin.

How a person might expiate for misdeeds is likely to be unique to the deed, the person, and their personal beliefs, although I suspect Calvin may have a few ideas on suitable sacrifices.

Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)