bloodguilt means guilt of wrongfully causing death or shedding blood. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 91 out of 100.
Why “bloodguilt” is a great word
BLOODGUILT — [Noun] The moral or spiritual stain incurred by wrongfully causing death. From the English words 'blood' and 'guilt', first attested in the 16th century. Unlike culpability (a general ledger of fault) or manslaughter (a sterile legal charge), bloodguilt is an indelible dye that saturates the soul. It is the phantom warmth on a shaking hand, the rust-brown shadow that will not scrub from a stone floor, and the ghost that takes up residence in a perfectly ordered house—a covenant with death that can never be fully absolved.
Etymology
From blood + guilt, since the 16th century.
noun
- Guilt of wrongfully causing death or shedding blood.