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scapegoat

noun
/ˈskeɪpˌɡoʊt/CA/ˈskeɪpˌɡəʊt/UK

Etymology

From scape + goat; coined by English biblical scholar and translator William 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. Compare English scapegrace, scapegallows.

  1. calqued from עֲזָאזֵל

Definitions

  1. In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the…

    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.

    • And Aarõ caſt lottes ouer the .ij. gootes: one lotte for the Lorde, ãd another for a ſcapegoote.
    • […]; alluding herein unto the heart of man, and the precious bloud of our Saviour; who was typified indeed by the Goat that was ſlain, and the ſcape Goat in the wilderneſſe;

  2. Someone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.

    • He is making me a scapegoat for his own poor business decisions and the supply chain disruptions caused by the hurricane!
    • Corbett says Railtrack was under great pressure in the aftermath, as it was the scapegoat even though the signal had been working properly.

  3. To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure

    To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of.

    • People tend to fear and then to scapegoat ... groups which seem to them to be fundamentally different from their own.
    • 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.
    • 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.

The neighborhood

Derived

scapegoatish

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for scapegoat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA