different between scapegoat vs victim

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

From Middle French victime, from Latin victima (“sacrificial animal”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?v?kt?m/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /?v?kt?m/
• Hyphenation: vic?tim

Noun

victim (plural victims)

1. One that is harmed—killed, injured, subjected to oppression, deceived, or otherwise adversely affected—by someone or something, especially another person or event, force, or condition; in particular:

   the youngest victims of the brutal war

   victim of a bad decision by a rushed and overworked judge

   • 2014, Holger H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918, A&C Black (?ISBN), page 116:

     Flexibility, one of the hallmarks of German military doctrine, was a victim of the war.

   1. One who is harmed or killed by a crime or scam.

      victims of assault; the murderer's victims

      became another victim of the latest scam
   2. One who is harmed or killed by an accident or illness.

      a fundraiser for victims of AIDS; a victim of a car crash
   3. One who is harmed or killed as a result of other people's biases, emotions or incompetence, or their own.

      a victim of his own pride; a victim of her own incompetence

      the newcomer never managed to make friends, a victim of the town's deep distrust of outsiders

      a victim of sexism; victims of a racist system

   4. One who is harmed or killed as a result of a natural or man-made disaster or impersonal condition.

      relief efforts to help victims of the hurricane

      victim of an optical illusion; victim of a string of bad luck

      local businesses were the main victims of the economic downturn

      • 1970 March 12, United States House Committee on Education and Labor, Summary of Legislative Action of the House Education and Labor Committee for the 91st Congress (1st Session) / Educational Technology Act of 1969: Hearing, Ninety-first Congress, Second Session on H.R. 8838 ... March 12, 1970:

        To some extent the schools and colleges are victims of conditions beyond their control: rapid population growth and mobility, country; to-city migration, unpredictable economic and social changes wrought by technology, […]
2. A living being which is slain and offered as a sacrifice, usually in a religious rite.
   1. (by extension, Christianity) The transfigured body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.

Usage notes

Many people advise against describing a disabled person as being a victim of the condition that relates to their status as a disabled person and suggest describing a disabled person as having or experiencing that condition instead.

Synonyms

• injured party

Antonyms

• offender

Related terms

• victimize, victimise
• victimization, victimisation
• victimism
• victimist

Translations

References

• victim at OneLook Dictionary Search
• victim in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• victim in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.