where did the term "getting off scott free" originate?

Answer 1

from randomhouse.com

"Scot-free actually comes from scot, meaning 'an assessment or tax'. This word is a borrowing from Old Norse, perhaps from scot 'contribution' or a related word scattr 'tax; treasure'. It also seems to be related to Old English gescot 'shot', and there is also the possibility of the influence of Old French escot, which was itself borrowed from a Germanic source. Scot is first found in this sense in the early thirteenth century.

Scot-free originally meant 'free from payment of scot', a sense that is now almost totally obsolete, except in historical contexts. By extension, it came to mean 'free from obligation, harm, punishment, or restraint'. (Yes, the idea that a tax is a punishment is a very old one.) Since the word scot on its own is now rare, most people probably interpret scot to be some sort of intensive of free."

Answer 2

surely this term is a perversion of the real term "Scott low fee" which grew to become into coined through the English to describe the frugality of the Scottish. The English knew complete nicely that the Scottish weren't loose with the aid of fact the English had occupied the rustic and taxed the Scotch only like that they had taxed the Bourbon interior the USA. and prefer the term Scott loose the British coined the term Yankee while they have been yanking human beings's legs.

Answer 3

It's "scot" free. Nothing to do with Scotland, it means essentially "share" as in "pay ones share". Originally it had something to do with a small local tax. The French still have a phrase "payer son ecot", which means about the same thing. And if you didn't pay or have to pay the tax you "got away scot free."

Answer 4

Scots carried their money in a "sporran" as kilts have no pockets, because of where they carry them, a pretty gal could reach in and help herself to some money, depending on how she handled things :D