Scot free
Scot free (scot-free), incorrectly also scott free (scott-free) is an idiomatic phrase in the English language that is used in expressions such as “to get off scot free” , “to escape scot free” or “to go scot free” " Is used, which all mean something like" get away with impunity "or" go out without penalty ". Scot free therefore means on its own something like "unpunished" or "free of punishment", but outside of the above-mentioned idioms, on its own, it is almost never used.
etymology
The word Scot does not refer - as is often mistakenly assumed - to the English first name Scott , the inhabitants of Scotland (English Scots ) or the escaped slave Dred Scott , but is derived from the Old English word sceot for "tax" . Scot is related to the noun shot and corresponds to certain words in Scandinavian languages . Modern Scandinavian equivalents are skatt in Swedish and Norwegian , skat in Danish and skattur in Icelandic and each mean tax . Scot is documented in Middle English in relation to different types of taxes, payments and duties.
Anyone who managed to “avoid ” paying the “scot and lot” , a local tax , in the Middle Ages got away with “scot free”. Accordingly, one still speaks in English today of the fact that someone gets away scot-free if someone has "eaten something up" but manages not to be punished for it through luck or resourcefulness.
Scott Free
From a misunderstanding, the English term "scott free" developed, which is used synonymously with "scot free" on the one hand, but also - in the erroneous assumption the term has something to do with the male first name Scott - often as a Meaningful name for resourceful contemporaries is used: Anyone who manages to get away scot-free habitually from awkward situations is therefore a "Scott Free" personality.
- Uses of the phrase "Scott Free"
- The director and producer Ridley Scott has called a production company he founded in double allusions - to his own last name and to the phrase - Scott Free Productions .
- Scott Free is the name of the main character in the Mister Miracle comic series .
- Scott Free is the name of a punk rock band from Chicago.
Web links
- Katherine Connor Martin: What is the origin of the term 'scot-free'? Oxford Dictionaries.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Merriam Webster
- ↑ Katherine Connor Martin: What is the origin of the term 'scot-free'? accessed on November 28, 2018
- ↑ dccomics , accessed November 28, 2018.
- ^ Scott Free, website