scape-animal
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From scape + animal; modelled on scapegoat.
Noun[edit]
scape-animal (plural scape-animals)
- An animal that has symbolically had human diseases and sins transferred to it and then is sent out alive into the wilderness to carry away the afflictions.
- 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 32:
- A very common one was to take an animal and, after various ceremonies, to sprinkle it with blood and let it loose as a scape-animal, carrying the disease away.