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"... flew threw the window, striking the woman ..."
They don't talk or spell proper on the Beeb these days ;)
My other pet hate is "pressurised" instead of "pressured". I hear the word used a lot in football (soccer) commentary. Aircraft cabins are pressurised, as are aerosol cannisters. Footballers are not. If they were, they'd explode.
"Scapegoat" . . . used . . . to mean "one who is blamed" when in fact the scapegoat . . . was the animal who was used (still is in some places) to lead the other animals into the slaughter house. . . the goat is of course not killed and so for him "this place" is not personally threatening
Where exactly do you get this explanation of "scapegoat"? I can't find it anywhere.
The English word was coined by William Tyndale in his 1530 Bible translation to render a difficult Hebrew word in Leviticus 16; the French expression is, similarly, used in French. The word refers to a goat used on the Day of Atonement. The sins of the people were confessed over him and he was sent out into the desert to "carry away the sins" of the people.
There is some debate about exactly how this goat was seen as functioning (and the related question of how best to translate the Hebrew), but no debate about whether Tyndale used (indeed coined) the word for this biblical passage. Since the traditional idea of a "scapegoat" taking/carrying the blame for others wrong deeds has most certainly long been a prominent interpretation of the biblical passage where's the problem?
As for the French term -- I cannot speak to the question of whether this term has a more complex history than the English one, a history that might include some sort of connection to the slaughterhouse image you describe. But if it is indeed derived (as 'scapegoat' was) from the Latin Vulgate's translation of Leviticus 16 (the Vulgate uses caper emissarius), this would seem to undermine your overall contention about the slaughterhouse image being the proper meaning & usage of the term.
The french version came from around the 17th century the century ..translation of the same bible text ..
The problem being that in the original text there are two goats in the ritual ..one is sacrificed and one is sent out .. ( the "sent out goat" being the "emissaire" ..no problem if the common usage of french or english referred to this one..) ..however both languages tend to use the "scapegoat" or "bouc emissaire" to mean either the goat who is sacrificed or the person who is sacrificed as opposed to being cast out..
"caper emissarius" was the one sent out ..so scapegoat cannot apply to the sacrificed animal ..
There is a wiki ( for what wiki's are worth ;)at #1 in "G" for search "bouc emissaire" here [fr.wikipedia.org] that is closest to the original ..( and that also shows as does the original hebrew text that one goat does indeed escape certain death ..this goat being the emissaire /emissary ..
There is also at #2 in "G" the following page [philophil.com] which distorts the original meaning into the goat which is immediately killed being the "emissaire"
Dans la litanie du rite, le sacrifice du bouc émissaire est destiné à calmer la colère des dieux, en réalité il apaise les pulsions agressives des hommes.note the use of the word "sacrifice" for the wrong goat ..
The french have taken this latter distortion as being the definitive meaning ..
In modern french ..one searches for a "bouc emissaire" to punish them physically or even kill them ..in the stead of the truly guilty ..not in order to cast them out or towards ( emissaire ) an imagined deity ( azazel ) to live and take their chances ..
The english also tend to make the confusion ..albiet to a lesser degree ..
The origin of the explanation I used is simple ..in farming communities such as the one I grew up in in Ireland taking two animals ( or more ) to the place of slaughter and killing all except one had obvious parallels with the correct rendition of the original text ..and so the animal was named in many country slaughter houses in both Ireland and England ..How far back this usage goes I could not say ..many generations certainly ..
Badly translated biblical texts that enter into history as the definitive version have lead to many delusions as to what was originally in the hebrew or more accurately the Arameic..
<snip>
sorry more errors than usual ..the heating is again broken ..very cold fingers typing at 4°c
[edited by: Leosghost at 5:08 pm (utc) on Jan. 9, 2006]
The french have taken this latter distortion as being the definative meaning ..
<snicker> see first post </snicker> ;)
gonna put some logs on and light the fire this is getting silly and it's getting dark here ..used "gonna" just ta rile ya Mr Earp
It appears that your complaint is NOT with people misunderstanding the use of the term "scapegoat", but with the misunderstanding of some Bible translators centuries ago. In fact, whatever their misunderstanding of this rather obscure Hebrew word, it did in fact result in an English word "scapegoat". Indeed the historical roots of a word or term are in a sense irrelevant. Even if the meaning in this case was derived from a misunderstanding of Hebrew, the resulting meanings you complain about ARE the "definitive meanings" of these words! (That's why these are the meanings you will find in any dictionary.)
Actually, you are totally misreading the text if you think the goat that because the goat was not sacrificed but "set loose into the desert that it was somehow "off the hook" and free of danger. Quite the contrary, whatever the precise meaning of Azazel, the text explicitly states that this goat is for making atonement, and that the people's sins are put on it (by the priest's confessing their sins over it). Whether or not the goat dies (or how or when it dies)is irrelevant. We are specifically told that it is carrying someone ELSE'S guilt. This, of course, is the main point even of the extended use of "scapegoat" to people. (In fact, it is scarcely surprising that people should think of THIS goat as 'carrying the sins' of others more than the goat slain on the altar, for it is THIS goat that the text explicitly makes exactly that point about!)
On the other hand, the story you tell of a goat used to lure others to their doom may well be a genuine practice is some parts. And perhaps in such places the residents have decided to call this animal a "scapegoat". But I see no reason to regard that as "the" proper or original meaning of the word, especially since the early history of the word --via Tyndale's translation-- is clearly attested. (I do NOT see this alternate meaning in any dictionary.) My guess is that this use is a much later regionalism that borrowed from (and altered the sense of) the established expression.
Funny thing -- I know the person who made that error and he is a very thirsty person. So I guess it makes a bit of poetic sense.
/blood boils
Back to miss uses and or miss spellings ( not always on websites )..
Please tell me this was intentional ;)
Isn't "miss" a young lady?
