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Scapegoat vs Sacrifice - What's the difference?

scapegoat | sacrifice |

In transitive terms the difference between scapegoat and sacrifice

is that scapegoat is to blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim while sacrifice is to trade (a value of higher worth) for one of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more such as an ally or business relationship or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money.

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.
  • sacrifice

    Verb

    (sacrific)
  • To offer (something) as a gift to a deity.
  • To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility to gain something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss.
  • * “Don’t you break my heart / ’Cause I sacrifice to make you happy.” - From the song Baby Don’t You Do It by Marvin Gaye
  • * “God sacrificed His only-begotten Son, so that all people might have eternal life.” (a paraphrase of John 3:16).
  • * Prior
  • Condemned to sacrifice his childish years / To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears.
  • * G. Eliot
  • The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum making this boy his heir.
  • To trade (a value of higher worth) for one of lesser worth in order to gain something else valued more such as an ally or business relationship or to avoid an even greater loss; to sell without profit to gain something other than money.
  • * (Ayn Rand), Atlas Shrugged
  • If you exchange a penny for a dollar, it is not a sacrifice ; if you exchange a dollar for a penny, it is.
  • (chess) To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board.
  • (baseball) To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be caught or fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out.
  • To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value.
  • To destroy; to kill.
  • (Johnson)

    Synonyms

    * (sell without profit) sell at a loss

    Derived terms

    * sacrificial

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The offering of anything to a god; consecratory rite.
  • * Milton
  • Great pomp, and sacrifice , and praises loud, / To Dagon.
  • Destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; devotion of some desirable object in behalf of a higher object, or to a claim deemed more pressing.
  • the sacrifice of one's spare time in order to volunteer
  • Something sacrificed.
  • * Milton
  • Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood / Of human sacrifice .
  • (baseball) A play in which the batter is intentionally out in order that runners can advance around the bases.
  • A loss of profit.
  • (slang, dated) A sale at a price less than the cost or the actual value.