Blăs'phe-my, n.

n. [Gr. βλασφημία, Lat. blasphemia, Fr. blasphème.] An indignity offered to God by words or writing; reproachful, contemptuous, or irreverent words uttered impiously against God.

“Blasphemy is to attribute to God that which is contrary to his nature, and does not belong to him, and to deny what does. This offense has been enlarged in most of the United States by statutory provision. In England all blasphemies against God, the Christian religion, the Holy Scriptures, and malicious revilings of the established church, are punishable by indictment.” Bouvier. In some Catholic countries the crime of blasphemy includes speaking evil of the Virgin Mary and the saints.

In the middle ages, blasphemy was used to denote simply the blaming or condemning of a person or thing. Among the Greeks, to blaspheme was to use words of ill omen, which they were careful to avoid.