Amende-honorable (Fr., 'honourable compensation') was in France in the 9th century a public and humiliating confession made by traitors and other offenders in court, after being stripped of their shirts by the executioner, and having had other indignities inflicted on them. In England, the phrase is used figuratively of a full and frank apology sufficient to atone for the wounded honour of another.
Amende-honorable
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 1: A to Beaufort, p. 213
Source scan(s): p. 0228