богохульство (Russian)

Where does "богохульство" come from?

The Russian noun 'богохульство', meaning 'blasphemy, profanity', is formed from native Slavic elements[1]. It combines 'Бог' meaning 'God' with the combining vowel '-о-' and 'хула́' meaning 'abuse, reviling', alongside the suffix '-ство'[1]. The root 'хула' is inherited from Proto-Slavic '*xula'[3], which itself may trace back to expressive origins or ancient roots meaning 'to shout, to scold' or 'to scrape, to injure'[4].

Open questions

• The ultimate Proto-Slavic root '*xula' is considered to be of onomatopoeic or expressive origin, with disputed connections to older Indo-European roots meaning to shout or to scrape. [4]

Full etymology tree

• богохульство (bogoxulʹstvo) (Russian), 'blasphemy, profanity'
  • compound Бог (Bog) (Russian), 'God (in monotheistic religions)'
  • confix -о- (-o-) (Russian), 'Interfix used to form compound nouns and adjectives.'
  • compound хула (xulá) (Russian), 'animadversion, reviling, abuse'
    • inherited *xula (Proto-Slavic), 'unjust vilification, verbal offence → blasphemy (in religion)'
  • suffix -ство (-stvo) (Russian), 'suffix appended to nouns and adjectives to create a neuter noun, usually an abstract noun denoting a relation, social status, scientific discipline, quality or state: -hood, -ness, -ship, -ity'

Ancestors

• Бог (Russian)
• -о- (Russian)
• хула (Russian)

Sources

1. богохульство (bogoxulʹstvo) (Russian) - Wiktionary
2. Бог (Bog) (Russian) - Wiktionary
3. хула (xulá) (Russian) - Wiktionary
4. xula (Proto-Slavic) - Wiktionary
5. ksew- (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris