scapegoat

Pronounced: SCAPE-goat, noun/verb

Notes: I knew the noun, but not the verb

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Yesterday’s word

The word sansculotte is

• an extreme radical republican in France at the time of the Revolution
• a radical or violent extremist in politics

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1800s

Background / Comments

In my mind, there was a vague association of our word with the French Revolution: as you can see by the first definition above, that was a correct association. Here’s the background: at the time of the French Revolution, aristocratic men who wanted to be at the height of fashion word knee breeches (culottes in French). Non-aristocrats could not afford culottes; instead, they wore pantaloons (long trousers). [As a side notes, this word is the origin of the American word “pants” that describe trousers]. When the poorer classes started the Revolution, they called themselves soldats sans culottes (soldiers without culottes). A short while later, the word sansculotte became both a French and an English word. The second meaning is a more generalized usage of the original meaning.