1 November 2014

blasphemy

[blas-fuh-mee]

noun, plural blasphemies.

1. impious utterance or action concerning God or sacred things.
2. Judaism. An act of cursing or reviling God.
Pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) in the original, now forbidden manner instead of using a substitute pronunciation such as Adonai.
3. Theology. the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God.
4. irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless, etc.:
– He uttered blasphemies against life itself.

Origin
Middle English Late Latin
1175-1225; Middle English blasphemie < Late Latin blasphēmia < Greek. See blasphemous, -y3

Related forms
nonblasphemy, noun, plural nonblasphemies.

Synonyms
1. profanity, cursing, swearing; sacrilege, impiety.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for blasphemy
– Some would call this wit, others blasphemy.
– For superstitious sailors, having a woman on a boat at all is just plain dangerous, but a woman skipper is viewed as blasphemy.
– Take your lies and blasphemy elsewhere.

Anagram

sylph beam
lamp be shy

Today’s aphorism

I suppose I should say that I treasure blasphemy, as a faith of the highest order.

– Rick Moody

On this day

1 – 2 November – Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated around the world, but particularly in Mexico, where it is a public holiday. On this day people pray for loved ones who have died. Coincides with the Catholic holidays of All Saints’ Day (originally introduced in 609AD) and All Souls’ Day.

1 November 1952 – The U.S. detonates the world’s first thermonuclear weapon, the Hydrogen Bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1 November 1993 – The European Union formally established as a result of the Maastricht Treaty, which had been ratified by 12 nations in February 1993. The nations were Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Irish Republic.