What are some ancient words that mean forgiveness?

Question

What are some ancient words that mean forgiveness? I’m looking for words that were used before the common era (before 0 CE). I’m looking for words from Latin, Greek, German, and other languages. These words can be nouns, verbs, or adjectives.

Answer 1

Was this question overlooked because of Thanksgiving?

Nouns

• venia: typically used of the gods for indulgence or permission, but developed a meaning of "pardon" or "forgiveness" already with Cicero (if not earlier)
• remissio: this became the Ecclesiastical word for forgiveness of sin
• clementia: this adds a connotation of "merciful" to the forgiveness
• ignoscentia: post-classical "very rare" but makes etymological sense

Verbs

• ignoscere: takes a dative; the most basic way to express forgiving someone/asking for forgiveness
• condonare: it means "to give up", but you can "give up" a grudge or debt, thus the forgiving aspect
• concedere: less common, but the basic idea is withdraw -> to allow -> to forgive someone (dat.) of crimes (acc.)

Adjectives

• exorabilis: "easily moved", i.e. forgiving if entreated
• clemens: adjective, from which the noun clementia is derived

Answer 2

The standard Classical Greek words are συγγιγνώσκω "forgive" and συγγνώμη or σύγγνοια "forgiveness".

Answer 3

In the gospels, the verb seems to be ἀφίημι, meaning literally to let go. See, for example, Mark 1:4.

Answer 4

We cannot give you any German examples, as there are no German (or Germanic) texts from before the common era, but we do have Sanskrit mṛḑīka-, Avestan marždika- et al.