[pahr-dn] 
| 1. | kind indulgence, as in forgiveness of an offense or discourtesy or in tolerance of a distraction or inconvenience: I beg your pardon, but which way is Spruce Street? |
| 2. | Law.
|
| 3. | forgiveness of a serious offense or offender. |
| 4. | Obsolete. a papal indulgence. |
| 5. | to make courteous allowance for or to excuse: Pardon me, madam. |
| 6. | to release (a person) from liability for an offense. |
| 7. | to remit the penalty of (an offense): The governor will not pardon your crime. |
| 8. | (used, with rising inflection, as an elliptical form of I beg your pardon, as when asking a speaker to repeat something not clearly heard or understood.) |
| par·don (pär'dn) tr.v. par·doned, par·don·ing, par·dons
[Middle English pardonen, from Old French pardoner, from Vulgar Latin *perdōnāre, to give wholeheartedly : Latin per-, intensive pref.; see per- + Latin dōnāre, to present, forgive (from dōnum, gift; see dō- in Indo-European roots).] par'don·a·ble adj., par'don·a·ble·ness n., par'don·a·bly adv. |
" 'I grant you pardon,' said Louis XV to Charolais, who, to divert himself, had just killed a man; 'but I also pardon whoever will kill you.' " [de Sade]Pardon my French as exclamation of apology for obscene language is from 1895. A pardoner (1362) was a man licensed to sell papal pardons or indulgences.
Pardon
the forgiveness of sins granted freely (Isa. 43:25), readily (Neh. 9:17; Ps. 86:5), abundantly (Isa. 55:7; Rom. 5:20). Pardon is an act of a sovereign, in pure sovereignty, granting simply a remission of the penalty due to sin, but securing neither honour nor reward to the pardoned. Justification (q.v.), on the other hand, is the act of a judge, and not of a sovereign, and includes pardon and, at the same time, a title to all the rewards and blessings promised in the covenant of life.