Etymologically
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blasphemy

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈblæs.fə.mi/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English blasfemie,[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman blasfemie and Old French blasfemie, also spelled blasphemie,[4][5][6][7] and partly directly borrowed from Late Latin blasphēmia (“irreverent speech against God; slander”),[4][2][8] the French word's source, used from Tertullian and the early Latin Bibles on.[4] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek βλασφημία (blasphēmía, “word of evil omen, profane speech, slander”),[4][5][6] which in the Septuagint and the New Testament also meant irreverent speech against God,[4] from βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to speak ill of, speak profanely”)[4][5][6] or from βλάσφημος (blásphēmos, “evil-speaking”),[9][6] with the suffix -ία (-ía).[4][9] The second element is related to φήμη (phḗmē, “utterance, report”),[5][6] from Proto-Indo-European *bha- (“to speak, tell, say”).[5][8] The first element is of uncertain origin:[6][5] it has been connected with a Greek word for "hurtful" and with one meaning "slack, stupid", and de Vaan suggests a link with the root of Latin malus (“bad”);[5] Barnhart takes it to mean probably "false".[10] The Anglo-Norman noun is recorded from 1212.[11] The verb blaspheme is recorded about 140 years later,[10] and the Late Latin verb blasphēmō, through Old French, is also the source of blame.[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Speech, thought or action showing contempt or irreverence for God or for holy things: about 1230, in the Ancrene Riwle, which lists blasphemy as the seventh whelp of pride.[4][2] Barnhart dates the word probably before 1200,[10] and Etymonline to the early 13th century.[5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the English word was used mainly of irreverence toward God and sacred things.[4][2] In the Wycliffite Bible (about 1384) it also meant abusive speech or slander against people, as the Greek word had, a sense that lasted until the 18th century,[4] and the Douay Bible of 1610 used it for a person or thing that is reviled.[4] From 1583, in Greene's Mamillia, it was used hyperbolically for disrespect toward anything held important or sacrosanct, or toward an accepted view.[4] Etymonline notes that in Old Testament use it applied to a more specific crime, against reverence for God as ruler of the Jews, comparable to treason,[5] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged records the senses it has in Jewish law: cursing God or the king, and pronouncing the forbidden name of God.[9] As a crime under English common law it was defined by Blackstone as, among other things, denying the being or providence of God or scoffing at Scripture.[5] Johnson (1755) defined it, after Ayliffe, as an indignity or injury offered to God himself by words or writing.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1230 – irreverent speech or action against God or holy things.[4][2]
  • c. 1384 – abusive speech, slander (obsolete by 1742).[4]
  • 1583 – hyperbolically, disrespect for anything held sacrosanct.[4]
  • 1610 – a person or thing that is reviled (obsolete).[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Speech, writing or behaviour showing contempt or irreverence for God or for sacred things; an instance of this: The pamphlet was condemned as blasphemy.[13][9][4]
  2. (law) In some countries, the offence of insulting or vilifying God or something sacred.[13][9]
  3. (Judaism) The cursing of God or the king, or the pronouncing of the forbidden name of God.[9]
  4. The act of claiming the attributes of a deity.[9]
  5. Disrespect for something widely held to be important or beyond criticism: To the purists, adding cream to the recipe was blasphemy.[4]

Word family

  • blasphemous

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ Stratmann, Francis Henry (1891), A Middle-English Dictionary, revised by Henry Bradley, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  10. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins