Blasphemy

How to spell blasphemy

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce blasphemy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blasphemy mean?

1. nounSpeech or writing that shows contempt or disrespect for God or for something regarded as sacred.

Blasphemy in a sentence

• The editor cut the line because it could be read as blasphemy in several countries.

• In some legal systems blasphemy was once a punishable offence.

Where does blasphemy come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word descends from the Greek blasphēmia, meaning 'profane or irreverent speech', and especially speech that slanders or insults what is held sacred. Scholars believe it was built from elements meaning roughly 'to speak harm', joining a root tied to injuring or damaging with phēmē, the ordinary Greek word for speech or utterance, the same element that sits inside 'euphemism', literally good speech. Latin took it over as blasphemia, and from there it passed into Old French as blasfemie before reaching English in the 1200s, when it carried a strongly religious sense of speaking impiously against God. Interestingly, the very same Greek source also gave English the milder word 'blame', which travelled by a shorter, more worn-down route through Old French. The fossilised Greek spelling is the heart of the spelling trap: the /f/ sound is written 'ph', and the unstressed middle vowel collapses to a schwa, so the ending is easily misheard as plain '-emy'.

How the word is built

• blas- (from Greek blaptein, to injure or harm)
• phem (from phēmē, speech or utterance)
• -y (noun-forming suffix)