Heartfelt, humble penitence.
Heartfelt, humble penitence — sorrowing regret bound to a will to make things right.
It foregrounds the sorrowing regret at the heart of genuine penitence, turned toward repentance and amendment, and carries a strong religious and moral register (its root means literally “a grinding, a crushing” of the spirit). Where remorse is anguished, gnawing self-reproach over the deed, contrition is humble sorrow that reaches toward forgiveness and reform. (Theology sets it against attrition — imperfect sorrow felt only from fear of punishment.)
c. 1300, from Late Latin contritionem “grief, contrition,” from conterere, literally “to grind” (com- “together” + terere “to rub”). Used in Church Latin for “crushed in spirit by a sense of sin.”
Originated as a Christian theological term — a figurative extension of the literal “grinding/crushing” — and modern usage remains weighted toward the moral/religious sense. No reliable recent-generation shift.