See also: blâmé and blâme

English edit

 blame on Wikipedia

Pronunciation edit

  • enPR: blām, IPA(key): /bleɪm/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪm

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English blame, borrowed from Old French blame, blasme, produced from the verb blasmer, which in turn is derived from Late Latin blastēmāre, variant of blasphēmāre, from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Doublet of blaspheme. Displaced native Old English tǣling (blame) and tǣlan (to blame).

Noun edit

blame (uncountable)

  1. Censure.
    Blame came from all directions.
  2. Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
    The blame for starting the fire lies with the arsonist.
  3. Responsibility for something meriting censure.
    They accepted the blame, but it was an accident.
  4. (computing) A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
See also edit

Etymology 2 edit

From Middle English blamen, borrowed from Old French blasmer, from Late Latin blasphēmāre (to reproach, to revile), from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Compare blaspheme, a doublet. Overtook common use from the native wite (to blame, accuse, reproach, suspect) (from Middle English wīten, from Old English wītan).

Verb edit

blame (third-person singular simple present blames, present participle blaming, simple past and past participle blamed)

  1. To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. [], London: [] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].
    • 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter I, in Middlemarch [], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 8:
      These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighbouring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.
    • 1919, Saki, ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace:
      That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary. The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.
    • 2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 106:
      I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming.
  2. (obsolete) To bring into disrepute.
  3. (transitive, usually followed by "for") To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).
    The student driver was blamed for the accident.
    After what happened at the wedding, I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to them again.
  4. (transitive, with "on") To assert the cause of some bad event.
    We blamed the accident on the student driver.
Conjugation edit
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Adjective edit

blame (not comparable)

  1. euphemism of damn (intensifier)

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Old French blasme, a deverbal noun from blasmer (to criticise).

Alternative forms edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

blame (uncountable)

  1. criticism, condemnation
  2. accusation (especially legal)
  3. blame, culpability
  4. offence, misdeed
  5. imperfection, downside
  6. disrepute, dishonour
  7. blasphemy, irreverence
Descendants edit
  • English: blame
  • Scots: blame
References edit

Etymology 2 edit

Verb edit

blame

  1. Alternative form of blamen

Walloon edit

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

blame f (plural blames)

  1. flame
    Synonym: flame