Festschrift

The German word Festschrift is used in English to denote writings collected to honour a distinguished academic or professional, usually on a celebratory occasion in their career. A festschrift may be a single edited volume, or several, or a special edition of an academic journal devoted to the celebrated person and their work, showcasing their accomplishments and others’ responses and engagements with them. The contents can be original or republications, such as essays, research, tributes, responses or reflections, with contributions from colleagues, collaborators, students, friends and peers. A festschrift may serve to document a  career and its influence, particularly at retirement, as well as to provide future influence.

In the original German Festschrift is a compound word made from the word Fest, meaning celebration or festival and actually now similarly employed in English, and the word Schrift, meaning writing or in this case writings. Interestingly the word shrift in English sounds the same but has a different meaning despite sharing the same origin, namely the root verb scribere in Latin, meaning to write. Scribere is also the root of the word scribble in English, but in modern usage shrift appears only in the expression to give short shrift, meaning to treat hastily or dismissively.