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Scapegoat

Biblical
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A scapegoat is the animal symbolically carrying communal guilt into the wilderness.

Detailed Definition
On the Day of Atonement, one goat is sacrificed while another bears the people’s confessed iniquities and is sent away. The ritual gives collective blame a body and a direction, though later usage often describes a person unfairly burdened with others’ faults. In poetry, scapegoat can expose social cruelty, the desire to purify through expulsion, and the lonely figure made to carry what everyone refuses to own.
Example
Example in poetry:
The scapegoat can symbolize a person unfairly blamed for a community’s failures; “They drove their anger into the scapegoat” uses the biblical ritual as a social metaphor; A poet may contrast public accusation with private innocence; The image can explore guilt transferred from the powerful to the vulnerable.
Additional Notes
The scapegoat comes from the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16, when the people’s iniquities are symbolically placed on a goat sent into the wilderness. The term now often describes a person unfairly blamed for a group’s troubles. It can therefore carry both ritual and social meanings.
Other Meanings of “Scapegoat”
Also Known As
Azazel Goat of Removal Escape Goat
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