Scot-Free

choi

In chronological order.

(1) President Trump in a series of tweets argued that his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen should receive maximal sentence:

"Donald J Trump
@realDonaldTrump

....his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free. He lied for this outcome and should, in my opinion, serve a full and complete sentence.

66.6K   10:29 AM - Dec 3, 2018"

(2) Trending: 'scot-free;' Lookups spiked 3,100% on December 3rd, 2018. www.merriam-webster.com, Dec 3, 2018
https://www.merriam-webster.com/ ... scott-free-20181203
("What does scot-free mean?  The word does not mean, the above citation notwithstanding, 'an absence of Scotts; free from the machinations of Messrs Baio, Pippen, Caan, and Joplin.' We enter the word with a single T [not two Ts, that is], and define it as 'completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty' ")

Note:
(a) The internal quotation must be a joke/comment somewhere (I can not find where). It mentions four Americans whose first name is Scott (or something like that): Scott Baio (born in 1960  or 1961 ("sources differ": en.wikipedia.org); American actor; Baio is an Italian surname), Scottie Pippen (Scottie rather than Scott is his birth name, and the one he uses throughout his life; a retired NBA player), Scott Caan (actor) and Scott Joplin (1868 – 1917; black compiser)

Italian-English dictionary:
* baio (adjective masculine; from Latin [adjective masculine] badius reddish-brown):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/baio
refers to hair color of the (Italian) man or women -- or a horse (in the latter called bay color in English).
(b) The online dictionary for this word says, "First Known Use 1528."  Regarding etymology, the same says: "Middle English, from Old Norse skot shot, contribution — more at SHOT"

(3) Ben Zimmer, Scot-free; Dodging medieval taxes -- or modern jail time. (in his column "Word on the Street" 00 as opposed to another WSJ column, noy by Zimmer, on commerce "Words on the Street").
https://www.wsj.com/articles/sco ... no-taxes-1544194800

Quote:

"The president's unorthodox spelling of “scot-free”—with an extra 't' and without a hyphen, in a tweet with his now familiar effusive capitalization—spurred a cavalcade of jokey Twitter speculation about who this 'Scott Free' fellow might be.

"Merriam-Webster's online dictionary saw an immediate spike in look-ups for the term and offered an explainer on its website a mere half-hour after Mr Trump's tweet.

" 'Scot-free,' for someone who escapes without punishment or harm, preserves an old English word that has otherwise fallen out of use: 'scot,' referring to a tax, especially one paid to the crown of England. Despite its resemblance to 'Scot' (for someone from Scotland, which also lies at the root of the [male given] name 'Scott' [both capitalized]), the resemblance to the 'scot' of 'scot-free' is purely coincidental.

"As Katherine Connor Martin, head of US dictionaries at Oxford University Press, noted in a 2015 blog post, the old meaning of 'scot' (meaning 'tax') is historically related to words in Scandinavian languages, such as the Swedish and Norwegian 'skatt,' the Danish 'skat' and the Icelandic 'skattur.' In Old English [which was used by Anglo-Saxons], the word for 'tax' was originally 'shot,' but it changed to 'scot' likely under the influence of the Scandinavian cognates that started with the 'sc-' sound.  'Shot-free,' meaning free from paying taxes, actually predated 'scot-free,' and it continued to survive into the early modern era of Shakespeare, who played with the term in 'Henry IV, Part I.' On the field of battle, Falstaff says, 'Though I could 'scape [escape] shot-free at London' (meaning he could escape unscathed), 'I fear the shot here.'  While 'shot-free' fell by the wayside, 'scot-free' persisted

Note: The article is available to the public.