Scapegoating

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The practice of shifting blame onto someone else, often unjustly, to evade responsibility or criticism is a common occurrence in various contexts
2. This involves designating a particular person or group as the sole bearer of blame for broader issues, despite their lack of culpability
3. The act of unfairly assigning blame to an individual or group to deflect attention from one's own faults is prevalent in social interactions

Etymology: William Tyndale, the English biblical translator, coined "scapegoat" in 1530 when rendering a puzzling Hebrew word in Leviticus. The ritual described there involves two goats: one is sacrificed, and the other is sent into the wilderness carrying the sins of the people. Tyndale's word joined "scape," an old form of "escape," with "goat," so the goat was literally the animal that got away, bearing the community's guilt out of sight. The word "scapegoating" follows from that image of a creature loaded with other people's wrongs. The Hebrew term behind it, azazel, is itself uncertain; Tyndale's reading, linking it to "goat" and a verb meaning "escapes," was an interpretation rather than a settled translation. Over the centuries the sense moved from a ritual animal to any person made to absorb blame. The noun's verb and gerund forms, "scapegoat" and "scapegoating," describe the act of pinning collective failures on someone who did not cause them.

Synonyms: blaming, accusing

Antonyms: justifying, defending