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Scapegoat vs Impunity - What's the difference?

scapegoat | impunity |

As nouns the difference between scapegoat and impunity

is that scapegoat is 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 while impunity is (countable|legal) exemption from punishment.

As a verb scapegoat

is to punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.

scapegoat

English

(wikipedia scapegoat)

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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.
  • * 1646 , Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica , Book II, ch 5
    • alluding herein unto the heart of man and the precious bloud of our Saviour, who was typified by the Goat that was slain, and the scape-Goat in the Wilderness
  • Someone punished for the error or errors of someone else.
    • He is making me a scapegoat .
  • * 1834 , Thomas Babington Macaulay, "William Pitt, Earl of Chatham" [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2332]
    • 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.

    Synonyms

    * fall guy, patsy, whipping boy

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
  • :: Don't scapegoat me for your mistake.
  • * 1950 , Rachel Davis DuBois, Neighbors in Action: A Manual for Local Leaders in Intergroup Relations , p37
    • People tend to fear and then to scapegoat ... groups which seem to them to be fundamentally different from their own.
  • * 1975 , Richard M. Harris, Adam Kendon, Mary Ritchie Key, Organization of Behavior in Face-to-face Interaction , p66
    • 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.
  • * 1992 , George H.W. Bush, State of the Union Address [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5047]
    • 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.
  • * 2004 , Yvonne M. Agazarian, Systems-Centered Therapy for Groups , p208
    • Then either the world or others or the self becomes the target for the human tendency to scapegoat .
  • To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.

    • Related terms

    * scapegoater * scapegoatism

    See also

    * escape * stool pigeon, stoolie English calques English catachreses English terms derived from the Bible

    impunity

    English

    Noun

  • (countable, legal) Exemption from punishment.
  • (uncountable) Freedom from punishment or retribution; security from any reprisal or injurious consequences of an action, behaviour etc.
  • * 1846 , :
    • I must not only punish but punish with impunity . A wrong is undressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.
  • * 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 495:
    • The remoteness of the prison made the authorities feel they could ignore us with impunity .