Wiktionary

scapegoat

English edit

WOTD – 1 May 2008
 
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Etymology edit

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.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

scapegoat (plural scapegoats)

  1. 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.
    • 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Leuiticus xvj:[8], folio XXIX, verso:
      And Aarõ caſt lottes ouer the .ij. gootes: one lotte for the Lorde, ãd another for a ſcapegoote.
    • 1650, Thomas Browne, “Compendiously of Sundry Other Common Tenents, Concerning Minerall and Terreous Bodies, Which Examined, Prove Either False or Dubious”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 64:
      […]; 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.
    Synonyms: fall guy, patsy, whipping boy; see also Thesaurus:scapegoat
    He is making me a scapegoat for his own poor business decisions and the supply chain disruptions caused by the hurricane!
    • 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 edit

Translations edit

Verb edit

scapegoat (third-person singular simple present scapegoats, present participle scapegoating, simple past and past participle scapegoated)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; 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, page 66:
      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.
    • 2023 December 11, Rory Hearne, “Ireland’s housing crisis is a disaster for its people – and a gift to far-right fearmongers”, in The Guardian‎[3], →ISSN:
      The question we should be asking is: who benefits when migrants and refugees are scapegoated for anger about housing?

Translations edit

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See also edit

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