Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A confession of sin.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun I have sinned; I am guilty; it is my fault.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- I have sinned; -- used colloquially to express confession or acknowledgment of an offense; -- used rarely, superseded by the approximate equivalent
mea culpa .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- interjection An expression of
guilt orculpability . - noun An act of saying ‘peccavi’; an admission of
guilt or responsibility.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Nevertheless, all uniformitarians had better at once cry "peccavi," -- not but what I feel a conviction that the world will be found rather older than Thomson makes it, and far older than the reviewer makes it.
More Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 1 Charles Darwin 1845
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His dispatch to the British War Office in London contained only the Latin verb peccavi, meaning ` I have sinned '[Scinde].
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Then, after every other verse, he would repeat, with a pause: "Tibi soli peccavi et malum coram te feci… He uttered the words plaintively, sighing profoundly and weeping, and moved with such a lofty idea of God and of His infinite sanctity that the Brother infirmarian was siezed with a holy dread."
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Among them three were especially widely disseminated: Domine, da nobis auxilium and Domine deus omnipotens for six voices, and Pater, peccavi in caelum for eight.
Archive 2009-06-01 Lu 2009
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The coulpe or peccavi, is made for a very small matter — a broken glass, a torn veil, an involuntary delay of a few seconds at an office, a false note in church, etc.; this suffices, and the coulpe is made.
Les Miserables 2008
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Adolescenti (saith Erasmus) acknowledging his fault, et gravissime peccavi, and so may [2068] I say myself, I have offended in this, and so peradventure have many others.
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Quia peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere by digby
Hullabaloo 2006
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After the clergyman has cried his peccavi, suppose we hoist up a bishop, and give him a couple of dozen!
Roundabout Papers 2006
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The cry of peccavi sounds soft and pretty when made by sweet lips in a loving voice.
The Claverings 2005
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He will receive $28,000 in cash, scholarships and bonds for spelling words like prosciutto, cabochon and peccavi.
quaxanta commented on the word peccavi
There's a story that in 1843, after annexing the Indian province of Sind, British General Sir Charles Napier sent home a telegram with the one word, "Peccavi" implying "I have Sind."
Then later, when another general annexed another Indian province, some wit wrote:
"Peccavi" - I've Sind - wrote Napier so proud;
More briefly Dalhousie wrote "Vovi" - I've Oudh.
(Peccavi in Latin is "I have sinned;" vovi is "I vowed")
Source: http://wordsmith.org/awad/awadmail167.html
December 2, 2006
sarra commented on the word peccavi
I've known this one for years, and only now — not that I'm particularly surprised — found it's an apocryphal tale. The most complete (and presumably verifiable!) reference I have:
The magazine Punch (May 18, 1844) published a letter from a 17 year old Ms. Catherine Winkworth suggesting that Napier's despatch to Lord E. should have read "Peccavi" (I have sinned). Thus, the famous wordplay was, in fact, a tongue-in-cheek insult.
http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/INDIA-BRITISH-RAJ/2005-11/1132988836
December 15, 2007
brucelj commented on the word peccavi
A couple of added details that may be of interest:
1) It is actually quite impossible that Napier, stationed in India (now Pakistan) could have sent such a telegram, for the simple reason that in the early 1840s the telegraph was only just beginning to be used in England and America (Morse's famous demonstration took place in 1844) and was not used in India till the 1850s.
2) Some versions of the story speak of Napier's telegraphing London. This would have been even more difficult. Intercontinental connections came even later. Thus a telegram from India to Britain was not possible till the late 1860s. A bit late to send the news!
2)Hymnsingers with a special love for the German chorale should be familiar with the name of the young lady of this story. Ms. Winkworth went on to help popularize German chorales (such as Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our God") by her English translations, many of them the "standard" version in English hymnbooks.
March 8, 2009