What is the origin of phrase "Scot Free" ?

Answer 1

Meaning
To escape pursuers or avoid payment.

Origin
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 'owners', the Blow family. Knowing this, we might feel that we don't need to look further for the origin of scott 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 'scot free' has nothing to do with Dred Scott.

Given the reputation of Scotsmen to be 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. A scot is a Scandinavian word for tax or payment. It came to the UK as a form of redistributive taxation which was levied as early the 13th century as a form of municipal poor relief. The term is a contraction of 'scot and lot'. Scot was the tax and lot, or allotment, was the share given to the poor.

Scot as a term for tax has been used since then to mean many different types of tax. Whatever the tax, the phrase 'scot free' just refers to not paying one's taxes.

No one likes paying tax and people have been getting off scot free since at least the 16th century. This reference from Vincent Skinner's translation of Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus's A discovery and playne declaration of sundry subtill practises of the holy inquisition of Spayne dates from 1598:

"Escape scotte free."

Answer 2

Scot Free

Answer 3

Scot free has no connection with Scotsmen, frugal or otherwise. It’s an accidental connection, just as it is in hopscotch.
Scot is from an Old Norse word that meant a payment or contribution and which is linked to the modern French écot, a share of communal expenses, as in payer son écot, to pay one’s share. It is a close relative of shot, which at one time could have the same meaning of a contribution or a share of expenses.
The expression scot free derives from a medieval municipal tax levied in proportional shares on inhabitants, often for poor relief. This tax was called a scot, as an abbreviation of the full term scot and lot, where scot was the sum to be paid and lot was one’s allotted share. (This tax lasted a long time, in some places such as Westminster down to the electoral reforms of 1832, with only those paying scot and lot being allowed to vote.) So somebody who avoided paying his share of the town’s expenses for some reason got off scot free.
Scot was also used for a payment or reckoning, especially one’s share of the cost of an entertainment; when one settled up, one “paid for one’s scot”. Again, someone who evaded paying their share of the tab got off scot free.
It’s been suggested that this usage may have come from the old habit of noting purchases of drinks and the like by making marks on a slate, or scotching it, but the evidence suggests this is just a popular etymology.

Answer 4

A simple web search of "scot free origin" gets to a great answer here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scot free.html,

The article discusses and dismisses the misconceptions about its origin being the US Dred Scott slavery case, or of it being from Scotland.

Here's the meat of it's answer: "'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."

Answer 5

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What is the origin of phrase "Scot Free" ?

Answer 6

Scot free refers to taxes that did not have to be paid in Scotland. The term has been around since the 11th century.

Answer 7

Scot Free has been around since the 11th century. The person who says that it has to do with Blacks doesn't know their history.

Answer 8

it may or may not have anything to do with the dred scot issue, however i like to think my ancestors were such vicious fighters that the brits finally decided to leave them free.

Answer 9

Maybe it derives from the fact that the Scottish people, my ancestors, resisted English rule...

edit: ...the Dred Scott case works for me, too...lol