blame

Meanings

Noun

• Censure.
• Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
• Responsibility for something meriting censure.
• A source control feature that can show which user was responsible for a particular portion of the source code.

Verb

• To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
• To bring into disrepute.
• 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).

Related

Similar words

• reproach, shend, take to task, upbraid
• hold to account

Origin

• 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. Replaced common use of native wite (from Middle English wītan, from Middle English wīte). blaspheme.
• From Middle English blamen, borrowed from Old French blasmer, from Ecclesiastical Latin blasphēmō ("to reproach, to revile"), from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω. Compare blaspheme, a doublet. Overtook common use from the native wite (from Middle English wīten, from Old English wītan).