different between scapegoat vs sacrifice

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

Borrowed from Old French sacrifice, from Latin sacrificium (“sacrifice”), from sacrific? (“make or offer a sacrifice”), from sacer (“sacred, holy”) + faci? (“do, make”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sæk??fa?s/
• Hyphenation: sac?ri?fice

Verb

sacrifice (third-person singular simple present sacrifices, present participle sacrificing, simple past and past participle sacrificed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To offer (something) as a gift to a deity.
2. (transitive) To give away (something valuable) to get at least a possibility of gaining something else of value (such as self-respect, trust, love, freedom, prosperity), or to avoid an even greater loss.
   • 1964, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Baby Don’t You Do It (Marvin Gaye)

     Don’t you break my heart / ’Cause I sacrifice to make you happy.

   • “God sacrificed His only begotten Son, so that all people might have eternal life.” (a paraphrase of John 3:16)
   • 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon on the Vanity of the World

     Condemned to sacrifice his childish years / To babbling ignorance, and to empty fears.

   • 1857, George Eliot, s:Scenes of Clerical Life

     The Baronet had sacrificed a large sum […] for the sake of […] making this boy his heir.

3. (transitive) To trade (a value of higher worth) for something 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.
   • 1957, 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.

4. (transitive, chess) To intentionally give up (a piece) in order to improve one’s position on the board.
5. (transitive, baseball) To advance (a runner on base) by batting the ball so it can be fielded, placing the batter out, but with insufficient time to put the runner out.
6. (dated, tradesmen's slang) To sell at a price less than the cost or actual value.
7. To destroy; to kill.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (to offer to a deity): Molochize
• (to sell without profit): sell at a loss

Derived terms

• sacrificial

Translations

Noun

sacrifice (countable and uncountable, plural sacrifices)

1. The offering of anything to a god; a consecratory rite.
2. The destruction or surrender of anything for the sake of something else; the devotion of something desirable to something higher, or to a calling deemed more pressing.

   the sacrifice of one's spare time in order to volunteer

   1. (baseball) A play in which the batter is intentionally out so that one or more runners can advance around the bases.
3. Something sacrificed.
4. A loss of profit.
5. (slang, dated) A sale at a price less than the cost or the actual value.

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin sacrificium.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sa.k?i.fis/
• Rhymes: -is

Noun

sacrifice m (plural sacrifices)

1. sacrifice

Related terms

• sacrificiel
• sacrifier

Further reading

• “sacrifice” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Adjective

sacrifice

1. vocative masculine singular of sacrificus

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [sa?krifit??e]

Verb

sacrifice

1. third-person singular present subjunctive of sacrifica
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of sacrifica