blame
n. uncountablen. the responsibility for something bad that has happened. You give this to someone when you think they caused a mistake or a problem.
n. responsibility for a fault or wrong. Often used in the context of assigning or accepting accountability for a negative outcome.
He tried to shift the blame to his coworkers.
The manager took the blame for the project's failure even though the whole team made mistakes.
While the public was quick to assign blame to the CEO, the subsequent investigation revealed a systemic failure across multiple departments that no single person could have prevented.
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”).
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).
Commonly follows verbs like 'take', 'accept', 'assign', or 'shift'. Often paired with the preposition 'for' to indicate the cause.
He put the blame on to meHe put the blame on meThe phrase is 'put the blame on someone'; adding 'to' is a common prepositional error.