blame

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bleɪm/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blamen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French blasmer (“to rebuke, reprimand, condemn”), later blamer (modern French blâmer),^[4][5] from Vulgar Latin *blastēmāre,^[4][5] an alteration of Late Latin blasphēmāre (“to blaspheme; to revile, reproach”),^[4][5][6] from Ancient Greek βλασφημεῖν (blasphēmeîn, “to speak ill of, blaspheme”).^[5][3][7] According to the OED the word entered Latin through the New Testament.^[5] The noun is from Old French blasme, a back-formation from the verb.^[4][6] It replaced Old English wītan.^[4] It is a doublet of blaspheme.^[7][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

“To find fault with”, the opposite of praise: probably before 1200 in Barnhart,^[5] about 1200 in Etymonline and the OED.^[4][8]

Semantic evolution

“To lay responsibility on for something wrong” is from about 1300.^[4][8] The noun first meant an expression of disapproval, a rebuke, in the early 13th century,^[4] and responsibility for something wrong from the mid-14th century,^[4] with to lay the blame on from 1393 in the OED.^[8] To be to blame is old, and in the 16th and 17th centuries it was sometimes taken as an adjective, “too blame”.^[8] As a mild oath, blame it! and blamed if I know, it is from 1830,^[8] in general dialect and American use.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to find fault with.^[5][4]
• early 13th century – noun, a rebuke.^[4]
• c. 1300 – to hold responsible.^[4]
• mid-14th century – responsibility.^[4]
• 1830 – as a mild oath.^[8]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To hold responsible: blamed him for the delay.
2. To find fault with; to censure.
3. To place responsibility for something: blamed the accident on the weather.

Noun

1. Responsibility for a fault or error; culpability.
2. Censure; condemnation.

Word family

• blamer
• blameless
• blamelessly
• blamelessness
• blameful
• blameworthy
• blamable
• blameable

Related words

• blaspheme
• blasphemy

Usage notes

The American Heritage distinguishes blame, which stresses censure or punishment for a lapse one is held accountable for, from fault, guilt and criticize.^[10]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin