Blamed

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /bleɪmd/

Definitions

1. Held responsible for a mistake, fault, or wrongdoing by others
2. Accused or considered the cause of a negative outcome or failure
3. Regarded as the party at fault for an error or problem

Etymology: The past tense of "blame" is "blamed," but the more surprising story is what happened to the older English verb it displaced. Before "blame" arrived from Old French, English speakers used "tǣlan" and later "wite," which meant to accuse or reproach. "Blame" itself traces back to Ancient Greek "blasphēmeîn," meaning to speak evil of someone or something, which is the same root that gave English "blaspheme." Over centuries the Greek word passed through Late Latin and Old French, losing its religious focus along the way and becoming a general word for finding fault. The word "blamed" is simply the regular past tense and past participle of "blame," so its history is that of "blame" itself. In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," published in 1899, a narrator complains about every "blamed port" along a coastline, using "blamed" as a mild intensifier meaning something close to "damned." That slangier sense shows how the word moved from a verb of accusation to a general expression of annoyance in American usage.

Synonyms: accused, faulted, condemned

Antonyms: absolved, exonerated, pardoned