scapegoat

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.

noun

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.
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!
   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. 1834, Thomas Babington Macaulay, William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) 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. 1950, Rachel Davis DuBois, Neighbors in Action: A Manual for Local Leaders in Intergroup Relations, page 37
   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. 1975, Richard M. Harris, Adam Kendon, Mary Ritchie Key, Organization of Behavior in Face-to-face Interaction, page 66
   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. 1992, George H.W. Bush, State of the Union Address
   Then either the world or others or the self becomes the target for the human tendency to scapegoat. 2004, Yvonne M. Agazarian, Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups, page 208