scapegoat
Plural: scapegoats
Noun
- someone who is punished for the errors of others
- 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.
- Someone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure.
Verb
- To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of.
Origin / 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.
Synonyms
whipping boy, Joe Soap, escapegoat, fall guy, folk devil, goat, patsy, scapegoat
Scrabble Score: 14
scapegoat: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordscapegoat: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
scapegoat: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary