#scot-free

[aistobascistod]

Are the posts made by a bot or do you come up with them?

Bad analogies : Artisanal, handmade, bot-free

:: Science fiction tetralogies : Artistetral, handmience fictione, scot-free

[skybrushus]

These are some study of the zebra mare Scot-Free. She's a lawyer based in Canterlot, and she will be representing Prophecy in the Court. Link 

 She will be critical to setting the course for Prophecy's future.

[alliterative-endlessknot]

The #ConnectedAtBirth #etymology of the week is MUGSHOT/SHUT/SCOT-FREE #wotd #mugshot #shut #scotfree #MugShotTrump

[thewordwideweb]

Getting off scot-free

Today, April 15th, would have been Tax Day, the deadline for paying federal income tax, if not for the corona craziness. And I’ve got a tax-related Word (or Phrase) of the Day. It’s “scot-free.” 

I’ve been re-reading “So, Anyway…” the autobiography of comedian/actor/writer/producer/ extremely tall person John Cleese. In several chapters, he reminisces about his days as a student at the University of Cambridge. The University has more than two dozen colleges, where students are expected to take classes, live, eat, sleep and socialize together. Cleese was a member of Downing College, but after a while, his writing and performing friends at Pembroke College “started inviting me to have dinner there, and after a couple of months I realized that the Pembroke dinner staff assumed I was a member of the college. I therefore dined there scot-free most evenings for the next two years. In fact, I saw so little of Downing that when I did go in for a meal during my last year, I was challenged by the bursar on the grounds that I was not a member of the college.” 

“Scot-free” has nothing to do with free dinners, or with people from Scotland, or Dred Scott, or other folks named Scot(t), or anything like that. ”Skat” is a Danish word for tax or payment and the word migrated to Britain and mutated into “scot” as the name of a kind of wealth-redistribution tax. The “scot” was levied as early the 10th century to help raise cash to provide relief to the poor. So, anyway…to “get off scot-free” meant to avoid paying that tax. 

Today, of course, to “get off scot-free” means to escape from punishment, penalty, harm or obligation. And if you didn’t already know that, well, don’t worry about it. I’ll let you off scot-free.

[postersbykeith]

[theartisanalgrammarian-blog]

Scot-Free, Scot-Ales, and Skots

Let’s begin by establishing that “scot-free” has nothing to do with Scotland or its inhabitants. It actually has more to do with Scandinavia.

The phrase goes back to the word “skot” in Old Norse, which is the ancestral language of Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Icelandic. “Skot” meant “a shot,” “something that is shot,” or, more broadly, “a contribution.”

The English language adopted it as “scot,” meaning “a royal tax.” It was still a contribution, albeit not a voluntary one.

In fact, in 16th-century England, lords and government officers held “ales” (festivities) known as scot-ales. The lord or officer compelled all of his subjects to attend and required them to pay a fee (a scot) for the “privilege.” Presumably, everyone had a great time. Or else.

Dictionaries still define “scot” as “money assessed or paid.” Getting off scot-free means that you avoid such a payment, and any other obligation or harm as well.

Let us each wish that for all of us. — Photo of Two Tax Collectors painting by Marinus van Reymerswaele (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons

2/3/17

[jasrandal]

11-9-2016 The Wicked Will Not Escape

11-9-2016 The Wicked Will Not Escape

“Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because…

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[origintonic-blog]