A scapegoat is someone who takes the blame for something they may or may not have done. It can refer to an innocent person blamed for a crime, a person who takes all the blame for a group, a foolish person, or someone who does other people’s work. The origin of the term is unclear, but it may simply refer to the person who gets arrested.
A scapegoat is a man, or occasionally a woman, who acts as a scapegoat, taking the blame for something he may or may not have been a part of. It can also be used as a term in comedy for someone who is constantly on the verge of getting bad jokes or a general goof, and it can also be used to describe someone who ends up doing other people’s work.
The most common meaning of scapegoat is an innocent person who takes the blame for a crime. If a bank is robbed, for example, and the robber leaves a clue that leads to someone who didn’t know about the robbery, he would make up that person as a scapegoat. The police could find the clue and arrest the innocent party, driving away the real criminal.
Related to this use, a scapegoat may be party to a crime, but left to bear all the blame, allowing the other criminals to go free. This may or may not be done with the consent of the scapegoat. If a group of four knows they are about to be caught, for example, one person might agree to go out and meet the police, turning themselves in and taking the fall so the others can escape. The other three people could also push the first person out the door and then flee, forcing the first person to act as a scapegoat against their wishes.
The third use of scapegoating is simply a foolish general who is easily fooled. This is often focused to refer to the butt of a joke, especially one who is always an easy target. In comedy writing it is common to create a character who acts as the scapegoat, offering an easy avenue for other characters to crack jokes.
The least common use of scapegoat is to describe a person who often does other people’s work. This is related to the previous use of a generic fool. The idea of this type of scapegoat is that he is a person who can be easily manipulated or deceived. Huckleberry Finn is a good example of this kind of scapegoating when Tom Sawyer convinces him to paint an entire fence, just by making it look like an exciting task.
A commonly given etymology for scapegoat is that it was used to refer to boxers who literally fell over to throw a match. This would be more closely related to the third and fourth uses of the word. There is little to support this etymology, however, although many people continue to refer to it.
Many people have also tried to relate the phrase to a specific “guy” who was being talked about falling over. Some have pointed to Lucifer, in his fall from Heaven. Others have looked to Icarus, falling from the sky because of his foolishness. Still others have pointed to Adam, who was part of the Fall from grace, resulting in an exile from Eden. While there may be much speculation as to who the original scapegoat was, there seems to be little evidence to tie the origin of the phrase to one person.
Much more likely is that the term “fall guy” refers to a 19th century slang usage of the word “fall”, where “to fall” simply meant to be arrested. This would make the etymology of scapegoat simply as the boy who gets arrested, which is simple and succinct, though perhaps not as glamorous as tying it to Lucifer’s fall from heaven.
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