Scapegallows

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A structure consisting of a platform and gallows where a person is publicly executed by hanging; a place of punishment symbolizing societal justice or judgment; or metaphorically, a situation or entity upon which blame or responsibility is unfairly placed
2. An apparatus including a raised stage and hanging beam used historically for executing criminals; the site of capital punishment and public spectacle; or figuratively, an object or person designated to bear blame or punishment undeservedly
3. A platform equipped with a hanging mechanism used for execution by suspension until death; a public location associated with legal retribution; or, in a figurative sense, a means of casting blame or scapegoating a person or group unjustly

Etymology: "Scapegallows" is a compound of "scape", an archaic form of "escape", and "gallows", the wooden framework on which criminals were hanged. Its literal sense is therefore a place or device from which a condemned person might get away, and the word was used in Shakespeare's time for a criminal who had escaped the gallows. The name reflects a kind of wordplay that was common in early modern English: a rogue who cheated the hangman was a "scape-gallows," and the word could describe the person as much as the place. The "scape" element survives in more familiar words such as "landscape," which is unrelated in origin but shows the same sound pattern.