blame

See also: blâmé and blâme

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: blām, IPA^(key): /bleɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪm

Etymology 1

From Middle English blame, borrowed from Old French blame, blasme, produced from the verb blasmer, which in turn is derived from Vulgar Latin *blastēmāre, present active infinitive of *blastēmō, from Ecclesiastical Latin, Late Latin blasphēmō, ultimately from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō). Doublet of blaspheme. Displaced native Old English tǣling (“blame”) and tǣlan (“to blame”).

Noun

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

• blame game
• blameworthy
• put the blame on

 

Translations

censure — see censure

culpability — see culpability

responsibility — see responsibility

state of having caused a bad event

• Arabic: لَوْم‎ m (lawm), مَلَامَة‎ f (malāma)

  Hijazi Arabic: لوم‎ m (lōm)

• Armenian: մեղք (hy) (mełkʿ)
• Bulgarian: вина (bg) f (vina)
• Catalan: culpa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 責備／责备 (zh) (zébèi)

• Dutch: schuld (nl) f
• Finnish: syyllisyys (fi)
• French: coupabilité f, blâme (fr) f
• German: Schuld (de) f
• Hebrew: אשמה‎ (he) f (ashmá)
• Italian: colpa (it) f
• Khmer: ទោស (km) (tooh)
• Korean: 비난 (ko) (binan), 탓 (ko) (tat), 원망 (ko) (wonmang)
• Middle English: blame
• Plautdietsch: Schult f
• Polish: wina (pl) f
• Portuguese: culpa (pt) f
• Russian: вина́ (ru) f (viná)
• Scottish Gaelic: cron m, coire f
• Slovene: krivda (sl)
• Spanish: culpa (es) f
• Swedish: skuld (sv)
• Urdu: دوش‎ m
• Venetian: colpa f
• Vietnamese: lỗi (vi)

See also

• fault

Etymology 2

From Middle English blamen, borrowed from Old French blasmer, from Ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmō (“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

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.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.

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.

4. (transitive, with "on") To assert the cause of some bad event.

   We blamed the accident on the student driver.

Conjugation

Conjugation of blame

infinitive	(to) blame
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	blame	blamed
2nd-person singular	blame, blamest†	blamed, blamedst†
3rd-person singular	blames, blameth†	blamed
plural	blame
subjunctive	blame	blamed
imperative	blame	—
participles	blaming	blamed

^†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

• (censure; criticize): reproach, shend, take to task, upbraid
• (consider that someone is the cause of something negative): hold to account

Derived terms

• blame Canada
• blamer
• dad-blamed
• to blame
• victim-blame

 

Translations

place blame upon

• Arabic: لَامَ‎ (ar) (lāma)

  Hijazi Arabic: لام‎ (lām)

• Armenian: մեղադրել (hy) (meładrel)
• Belarusian: вінава́ціць impf (vinavácicʹ), абвінава́чваць impf (abvinaváčvacʹ)
• Bengali: দোষ দেওয়া (bn) (dōś deōẇa), এলজাম দেওয়া (eljam deōẇa)
• Bulgarian: виня (bg) (vinja), обвинявам (bg) (obvinjavam)
• Catalan: culpar (ca)
• Cherokee: ᎠᏚᎯᏍᏗᎭ (aduhisdiha)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 責備／责备 (zh) (zébèi), 責怪／责怪 (zh) (zéguài), 怪 (zh) (guài)

• Czech: vinit (cs), obviňovat (cs) impf
• Danish: skylde (da), bebrejde (da), dadle
• Dutch: beschuldigen (nl), verwijten (nl), wijten (nl)
• Esperanto: riproĉi, mallaŭdi
• Estonian: süüdistama
• Finnish: syyttää (fi)
• French: reprocher (fr), blâmer (fr)
• Galician: culpar (gl), culpabilizar, inculpar (gl)
• German: beschuldigen (de), verantwortlich machen
• Gothic: 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 (fairinōn)
• Greek:

  Ancient: μέμφομαι (mémphomai), ὄνομαι (ónomai)

• Hebrew: האשים‎ (he'eshím)
• Hungarian: hibáztat (hu), okol (hu), kárhoztat
• Ido: blamar (io)
• Indonesian: menuduh (id), menyalahi (id)
• Irish: use bí + an (ga) + locht or milleán + a (ga) chur ar; literally the blame is on
• Italian: incolpare (it), biasimare (it), dare torto
• Japanese: 責める (ja) (せめる, semeru), -のせいにする (sei-ni suru)
• Korean: 비난하다 (ko) (binanhada), 탓하다 (tathada), 원망하다 (ko) (wonmanghada)
• Latin: culpō
• Macedonian: обвинува impf (obvinuva), обвини pf (obvini)
• Maori: uapare, whakatuaki, whakarare
• Middle English: blamen
• Norwegian: skylde
• Occitan: blaimar (oc)
• Old English: tǣlan
• Oromo: komachuu
• Persian: سرزنش کردن‎ (fa)
• Polish: winić (pl) impf, obwiniać (pl) impf, obwinić (pl) pf
• Portuguese: culpar (pt)
• Quechua: tumpai
• Romanian: inculpa (ro), învinui (ro), învinovăți (ro), blama (ro)
• Russian: вини́ть (ru) impf (vinítʹ); обвиня́ть (ru) impf (obvinjátʹ), обвини́ть (ru) pf (obvinítʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кривити

  Roman: kriviti (sh)

• Slovak: viniť impf, obviňovať impf
• Slovene: kriviti
• Spanish: culpar (es), culpabilizar (es), echar la culpa, inculpar (es)
• Swedish: skylla (sv), klandra (sv)
• Thai: โทษ (th) (tôot)
• Turkish: suçlamak (tr), suç atmak
• Ukrainian: вини́ти impf (vynýty), винува́тити impf (vynuvátyty), звинува́чувати impf (zvynuváčuvaty)

Anagrams

• Amble, Embla, Lambe, Mabel, Mable, Melba, amble, belam, melba

Middle English

Etymology 1

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

Alternative forms

• blam (rare)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈblaːm(ə)/

Noun

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

• English: blame
• Scots: blame

References

• “blāme, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Verb

blame

1. Alternative form of blamen

Walloon

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blam/

Noun

blame f (plural blames)

1. flame

   Synonym: flame