Everyday LifeGreek → English
Blame
/bleɪm/verb
To hold someone responsible for something that went wrong.
The Greek roots
βλάσφημος
blásphēmos
speaking evil, slanderous
Literally: “speaking evil”
Follow a root:βλάσφημος1 word
The story of the word
Blame and blaspheme are the same Greek word arriving twice. βλάσφημος went into Late Latin as blasphemare, wore down through spoken Latin to something like blastemare, and reached English through Old French blasmer around 1200 with its religious charge stripped out. The learned form blaspheme was borrowed straight from the Latin centuries later, which is why the pious word and the ordinary one look nothing alike.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Late Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- c. 1200
Same family
blasphemeblasphemyblameless
In a sentence
Nobody blamed the driver once they saw the state of the road.
She took the blame for a decision three people had made together.