different between scapegoat vs accuse

English

Etymology

From scape +? goat; coined by Tyndale, interpreting Biblical Hebrew ????????? (“azazél”) (Leviticus 16:8, 10, 26), from an interpretation as coming from ???? (ez, “goat”) and ????? (ozél, “escapes”). First attested 1530.

Pronunciation

• (Canada, US) IPA^(key): /?ske?p??o?t/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ske?p????t/

Noun

scapegoat (plural scapegoats)

1. 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

2. 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" [1]

     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

• (someone punished for someone else's error(s)): fall guy, patsy, whipping boy; see also Thesaurus:scapegoat

Translations

Verb

scapegoat (third-person singular simple present scapegoats, present participle scapegoating, simple past and past participle scapegoated)

1. (transitive) To punish someone for the error or errors of someone else; to make a scapegoat of.
   • 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.
2. (transitive) To blame something for the problems of a given society without evidence to back up the claim.

Translations

Related terms

• scapegoater
• scapegoating (noun)
• scapegoatism

See also

• blame Canada
• blameshift
• escape
• look for a dog to kick
• stool pigeon, stoolie
• whipping boy

English

Etymology

First attested around 1300. From Middle English acusen, from Old French acuser, from Latin acc?s? (“to call to account, accuse”), from ad (“to”) + causa (“cause, lawsuit, reason”). Akin to cause. Displaced native English bewray.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: ?kyo?oz?, IPA^(key): /??kju?z/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??kjuz/
• Rhymes: -u?z
• Hyphenation: ac?cuse

Verb

accuse (third-person singular simple present accuses, present participle accusing, simple past and past participle accused)

1. (transitive) to find fault with, blame, censure
2. (transitive, law, followed by "of") to charge with having committed a crime or offence

   Synonyms: charge, indict, impeach, arraign

3. (intransitive) to make an accusation against someone

   Synonyms: blame, censure, reproach, criminate

Usage notes

• (legal): When used this way accused is followed by the word of.

Related terms

Translations

Noun

accuse (uncountable)

1. (obsolete) Accusation.

Further reading

• accuse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• accuse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• accuse at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• cuecas

French

Verb

accuse

1. first-person singular present indicative of accuser
2. third-person singular present indicative of accuser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of accuser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of accuser
5. second-person singular imperative of accuser

Italian

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -uze

Noun

accuse f

1. plural of accusa

Portuguese

Verb

accuse

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of accusar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of accusar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of accusar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of accusar