means a person or group blamed and punished for the faults or wrongs of others, often unfairly.

from Coined by William Tyndale in his 1530 English Bible to render a tricky Hebrew word in Leviticus. On the Day of Atonement two goats were chosen: one sacrificed, the other symbolically loaded with the people's sins and driven into the wilderness. The Hebrew azazel was read as ez ozel, 'the goat that departs' — so Tyndale wrote 'escape goat,' which wore down to 'scapegoat.' The figurative human sense, the blameless soul made to bear the blame, came later, in the 19th century.