To give ‘short shrift’ is to give little and unsympathetic attention to.

Shrift? Not a word you hear every day. In fact, apart from in this expression, it is now so rarely used that it’s hard to think of a shrift that isn’t short.

The verb shrive is also now an almost forgotten antique. A priest in a confession, often when the confessor was near to death, would shrive him or her by imposing a penance, called a shrift, in order to provide absolution.

Short shriftShrove Tuesday, which most of us in the UK now refer to as Pancake Day, derives from shriving – originally a day when people were shriven or shrove; more recently a day when we toss pancakes.

In the 17th century, criminals were sent to the scaffold immediately after sentencing and only had time for a cursory ‘short shrift’ before being hanged. From that literal beginning ‘short shrift’ migrated into meaning ‘give cursory consideration to’.

The term ‘short shrift’ is ancient and has been part of the English language since at least the 16th century.

The first known use of ‘short shrift’ in print relates to the history of the British monarchy. Following the death of Edward IV in 1483, the Duke of Gloucester was appointed Lord Protector of England. He accused Lord Hastings of plotting against him and arranged for him to be executed. Hastings was allowed only a short shrift as Gloucester was anxious to get his dinner.

An account of this story was printed almost a hundred years later in by the English writer Raphael Holinshed in The Chronicles of England, 1577:

Lorde Chamberlaine, whome the Protectour hade speede and shrine him apace, for by Saint Paule I will not to dinner till I see thy head off. It booted him not [it mattered not to him] to aske why, but made a short shrift for a longer would not be suffered, the Protector made so much hast to dinner.