Trending: ‘scot-free’

Scot-free attracted considerably more attention than it usually does on December 3rd, 2018, after President Trump employed the word with an uncommon orthographic form, in a tweet.

....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.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2018

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, and define it as "completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty."

Scot-free has been in English use since the early 16th century, and comes from the word scot, meaning "money assessed or paid."

Asymbolus, he that commeth to a bankette, without appoyntment, an unboden gest. also he that gothe scot free, and payeth nothinge.
— Thomas Elyot, Bibliotheca Eliotae Eliotis librarie, 1542