Deserving to be blamed or criticized for doing something wrong or bad.
From Middle English 'blame' (from Old French 'blamer') combined with 'worthy' (from Old English 'weorthe' meaning value or worth). The compound emerged in Middle English to describe things that merit blame.
The word 'blameworthy' reveals how English creates moral judgments by combining simple concepts—we made 'blame' into an adjective by adding 'worthy,' the same suffix used in 'praiseworthy.' It's a linguistic mirror showing how we assign responsibility.
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