blame

English Online Dictionary. What means blame‎? What does blame mean?

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: blām, IPA^(key): /bleɪm/
• 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 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

blame (uncountable)

1. Censure.

2. Culpability for something negative or undesirable.

3. Responsibility for something meriting censure.

4. (computing) A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• fault

Etymology 2

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

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

1. (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).
2. (transitive, with "on") To assert the cause of some bad event.

3. To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
4. (obsolete) To bring into disrepute.

Conjugation

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

blame (not comparable)

1. euphemism of damn (intensifier)

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