Blasphemy is speaking or acting in a way that shows great disrespect toward God or something considered sacred.
It comes from Old French “blasfemie” and Late Latin “blasphemia,” meaning “evil-speaking” or “slander.” The Greek roots are “blas-” (hurt, injure) and “-pheme” (speech), literally “injurious speech.”
Originally, blasphemy was about harmful speech in general, not just religion. The word shows how powerful people believed words could be—so powerful that saying the wrong thing could be treated like a kind of spiritual crime.
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