This week’s theme
Words from the Bible

This week’s words
nimrod
via dolorosa
scapegoat
gethsemane
samaritan

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(SKAYP-goht)

MEANING:

noun: One blamed for another’s wrongdoing.
verb tr.: To blame someone for another’s wrongdoing.

ETYMOLOGY:

As sometimes happens with ancient books, this term arose as a misreading of a word as Hebrew ’ez ’ozel (goat that departs) for what was, in fact, the proper noun Azazel, apparently a name for a demon. The explanation given in Leviticus 16:8 is that one casts one’s sins on a goat and lets it escape into the wilderness. Earliest documented use: 1530.

USAGE:

“Not surprisingly, these writers found their ideal scapegoat in Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish military officer wrongly accused of treason in what became the trial of the century.”
Turning Dark; The Economist (London, UK); Apr 26, 2014.

See more usage examples of scapegoat in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: