Etymology

scapegoat

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Today it means: 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. Full definition →

Biblical Hebrew עֲזָאזֵל
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The story

  1. Biblical Hebrew · calque ofעֲזָאזֵל“azazél”
  2. English todayscapegoat

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.