Shrove Tuesday

English

Etymology

From shrove, past tense of shrive (“to receive a confession”), from the mediaeval practice of priests hearing confessions before Lent, and Tuesday.

Noun

Shrove Tuesday (plural Shrove Tuesdays)

  1. The day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday.
    Coordinate term: Fat Thursday
    • 1712, Erra Pater, A Prognostication for Ever, Made by Erra Pater, page 7:
      Observe when the Moon is new in February, the next Tuesday after is Shrove-tuesday: but if it change on Tuesday, then the next Tuesday following is Shrove-tuesday
    • 1779, David Dalyrymple, Annals of Scotland From the Accenssion of Robert I, page 283:
      The day appointed for this extraordinary hunting-party was Shrove Tuesday. The Protestants of Paisley, in whose neighbourhood this story may be said to have originated, cannot discern the difference betwixt Shrove Tuesday and any other Tuesday; but if a Roman Catholic Princess, even in our free times, should be invited to a hunting-match on Shrove Tuesday, she would be shocked at the profane invitation.

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