scapegoat
Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary
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[edit] English
[edit] Etymology
Coined by Tyndale from scape + goat, mis-translating Hebrew עזאזל (“‘Azazel’”) (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26), from an interpretation as coming from עז (ez), “‘goat’”) and אוזל (ozél), “‘escapes’”). First attested 1530.
[edit] Pronunciation
- (Canadian, US) IPA: /ˈskeɪpˌgoʊt/
- (UK) IPA: /ˈskeɪpˌgəʊt/, SAMPA: /"skeIp.g@Ut/
- Audio (US)help, file
[edit] Noun
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Singular |
Plural |
scapegoat (plural scapegoats)
- In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed.
- 1646: alluding herein unto the heart of man and the precious bloud of our Saviour, who was typified by the Goat that was slain, and the scape-Goat in the Wilderness — Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book II, ch 5
- Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.
- He is making me a scapegoat.
- 1834: Thomas Babington Macaulay, "William Pitt, Earl of Chatham" [1]
- The new Secretary of State had been long sick of the perfidy and levity of the First Lord of the Treasury, and began to fear that he might be made a scapegoat to save the old intriguer who, imbecile as he seemed, never wanted dexterity where danger was to be avoided.
[edit] Synonyms
- ( someone punished for someone else's error(s)): fall guy, patsy, whipping boy
[edit] Translations
a goat imbued with the sins of the people
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someone punished for someone else's error(s)
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[edit] Verb
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Infinitive |
Third person singular |
Simple past |
Past participle |
Present participle |
to scapegoat (third-person singular simple present scapegoats, present participle scapegoating, simple past and past participle scapegoated)
- (transitive) To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
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- Don't scapegoat me for your mistake.
- 1950: Rachel Davis DuBois, Neighbors in Action: A Manual for Local Leaders in Intergroup Relations, p37
- People tend to fear and then to scapegoat ... groups which seem to them to be fundamentally different from their own.
- 1975: Richard M. Harris, Adam Kendon, Mary Ritchie Key, Organization of Behavior in Face-to-face Interaction, p66
- They had been used for centuries to justify or rationalize the behavior of that status and conversely to scapegoat and blame some other category of people.
- 1992: George H.W. Bush, State of the Union Address [2]
- And I want to add, as we make these changes, we work together to improve this system, that our intention is not scapegoating and finger-pointing.
- 2004: Yvonne M. Agazarian, Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups, p208
- Then either the world or others or the self becomes the target for the human tendency to scapegoat.
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- (transitive) To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.
[edit] Translations
to punish someone for the error of someone else
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to blame something for the problems of a given society
