scapegoat
English
Etymology
From scape + goat; coined by Tyndale, interpreting Biblical Hebrew עֲזָאזֵל (“azazél”) (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26), from an interpretation as coming from עֵז (ez, “goat”) and אוזל (ozél, “escapes”). First attested 1530.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "Canada" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL. IPA(key): /ˈskeɪpˌɡəʊt/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
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, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, Book II, ch 5
- 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
- 1646, 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.
Synonyms
- (someone punished for someone else's error(s)): fall guy, patsy, whipping boy; see also Thesaurus:scapegoat
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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Verb
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.
- 1950, Rachel Davis DuBois, Neighbors in Action: A Manual for Local Leaders in Intergroup Relations, page 37:
- 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, page 208:
- Then either the world or others or the self becomes the target for the human tendency to scapegoat.
- (transitive) To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.
Translations
to punish someone for the error of someone else
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to blame something for the problems of a given society
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Related terms
- scapegoater
- scapegoating (noun)
- scapegoatism
See also
Categories:
- English compound terms
- English terms calqued from Biblical Hebrew
- English terms derived from Biblical Hebrew
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with quotations
- English catachreses
- English terms derived from the Bible