contrite adj.

word-forming element meaning "together, with," sometimes merely intensive; it is the form of com- used in Latin before consonants except -b-, -p-, -l-, -m-, or -r-. In native English formations (such as costar), co- tends to be used where Latin would use con-.

*terə-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to rub, turn," with derivatives referring to twisting, also to boring, drilling, piercing; and to the rubbing of cereal grain to remove the husks, and thus to threshing.

It forms all or part of: atresia; attorn; attorney; attrition; contour; contrite; detour; detriment; diatribe; drill (v.) "bore a hole;" lithotripsy; return; septentrion; thrash; thread; thresh; throw; threshold; trauma; trepan; tribadism; tribology; tribulation; trite; triticale; triturate; trout; trypsin; tryptophan; turn.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit turah "wounded, hurt;" Greek teirein "to rub, rub away;" Latin terere "to rub, thresh, grind, wear away," tornus "turning lathe;" Old Church Slavonic tiro "to rub;" Lithuanian trinu, trinti "to rub," Old Irish tarathar "borer," Welsh taraw "to strike."

c. 1300, contrycyun, contricioun, "brokenness of spirit for having given offense, deep sorrow for sin or guilt with the purpose of not sinning again," from Old French contriciun "contrition, remorse;

a break, breach" (Modern French contrition) and directly from Late Latin contritionem (nominative contritio) "grief, contrition," noun of action from past-participle stem of conterere, literally "to grind" (see contrite). The modern sense is a figurative use in Christianity. The word was sometimes used in Middle English in the literal Latin sense "a crushing" (mid-14c.).