Blame vs Compunction - What's the difference?
blame | compunction |
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 pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
* :
* 1897 , , Dracula , ch. 3:
* 1920 , , Women in Love , ch. 8:
* 2003 February 16, Blaine Greteman, "
As nouns the difference between blame and compunction
is that blame is censure while compunction is a pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.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 verbscompunction
English
Noun
(en noun)- [H]e would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city.
- I felt no compunction in doing so, for under the circumstances I felt that I should protect myself in every way I could.
- But he felt, later, a little compunction . He had been violent, cruel with poor Hermione. He wanted to recompense her, to make it up.
No Peace Dividend," Time :
- As for average U.S. consumers, they've shown little compunction about buying diamonds that fund bloody militias in Africa.