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blame

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blame¹

  • /bleɪm/

Rhymes with -eɪm

Where it comes from

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

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

blame²

  • /bleɪm/

Rhymes with -eɪm

Where it comes from

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 blames · blaming · blamed · blame

  1. transitive, usually 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.
  2. transitive To assert the cause of some bad event. We blamed the accident on the student driver.
  3. To censure (someone or something); to criticize. though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame, yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].
  4. obsolete To bring into disrepute. For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.

Similar: accuse, atwite, blame, bumble, challenge, cop out, decry, defame, denounce, fault, finger, inculpate

adjective

  1. not comparable euphemism of damn (intensifier) "He yarns good," said Tom Platt. "T'other night he told us abaout a kid of his own size steerin' a cunnin' little rig an' four ponies up an' down Toledo, Ohio, I think 'twas, an' givin' suppers to a crowd o' sim'lar kids. Cur'us kind o' fairy-tale, but blame interestin'. He knows scores of 'em."

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