APAD: scot free

Meaning:

    To escape without incurring payment or without punishment.

 

Background:

   Dred Scott was a black slave born in Virginia, USA in 1799. In several

   celebrated court cases, right up to the USA Supreme Court in 1857, he

   attempted to gain his freedom. These cases all failed but Scott was later

   made a free man by his so-called owners, the Blow family. Knowing this, we

   might feel that we don't need to look further for the origin of the phrase

   `scot free'. Many people, especially in the USA, are convinced that the

   phrase originated with the story of Dred Scott.

 

   The etymology of this phrase shows the danger of trying to prove a case on

   circumstantial evidence alone. In fact, the phrase has nothing to do with Mr.

   Scott.

 

   Given the reputation of Scotsmen as being careful with their money we might

   look to Scotland for the origin of `scot free'. Wrong again, but at least we

   are in the right part of the world now. `Skat' is a Scandinavian word for tax

   or payment and the word migrated to Britain and mutated into `scot' as the

   name of a redistributive taxation, levied as early the 10th century as a form

   of municipal poor relief.

 

   `Scot' as a term for tax has been used since then in various forms - Church

   scot, Rome scot, Soul scot and so on. Whatever the tax, the phrase `getting

   off scot free' simply refers to not paying one's taxes.

 

- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]

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Okay. Next time at the checkout of a duty-free store, I'll ask for confirmation,

e.g., "Is it true that I can bag the shortbread and haggis scot free?"