Blame vs Onus - What's the difference?
blame | onus | Synonyms |
Censure.
Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
Responsibility for something meriting censure.
To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ii:
*
* 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :
* 2006 , Clive James, North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 106:
(obsolete) To bring into disrepute.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
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).
A legal obligation.
(uncountable) Burden of proof, onus probandi
Stigma.
*
Blame.
*
Responsibility; burden.
*
As nouns the difference between blame and onus
is that blame is censure while onus is a legal obligation.As a verb blame
is to censure (someone or something); to criticize.blame
English
Etymology 1
(etyl), from (etyl)Noun
(-)- Blame came from all directions.
- The blame for starting the fire lies with the arsonist.
- They accepted the blame , but it was an accident.
Derived terms
* put the blame onSee also
* faultEtymology 2
(etyl), from (etyl) blasmer, from . Compare (blaspheme)Verb
(blam)- though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame , yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].
- These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.
- That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary . The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.
- I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming .
- For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.
- The arsonist was blamed for the fire.
Synonyms
* reproach, take to task, upbraid * (consider that someone is the cause of something negative) hold to accountDerived terms
* blamerAnagrams
* English reporting verbsonus
English
Noun
- The onus is on the landlord to make sure the walls are protected from mildew.
- The onus is on those who disagree with my proposal to explain why.