penance
pe·nance
noun
1.
2.
a Catholic sacrament; repentance and confession and satisfaction and absolution
3.
voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing
Origin
From Middle English penaunce, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French peneance, from Latin paenitentia (“repentance, penitence”). Doublet of penitence.
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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.