"Origins of words" by Susie Dent, Countdown 08/09/17 (get off scot-free)

I had a tweet in from Danny Smith in Southhampton who asked why when we escape from something or somebody do we get off scot-free? And the expression has nothing to do with Scotland. You probably would expect it to. But its dtory instead began in Scandinavia where skot, S-K-O-T, particularly in olf Icelandic, was the word of a payment or a tax. And ehen the word came into the English in the 12th century, it described spesifically those taxes that were paid by feudal tenants to their ruler in proportion to their ability to pay. In other words, they were means tested. So those who had little or no money at all could go without paying. The equivalent perhaps of council taxes today. And they consequently could go scot-free. They would not have to pay the scot and could just happily go on their way. Although, as I say, they didn't have too much money to go on. But before long, the expression then ancompassed a more general meaning of going without punishment of some kind, which is how we ended up with scot today. But there were a lots o other scots or taxes durinh this period. So a soul-scot, for example, was a tax paid to the parish or behalf  of the deceased person. And Rome-scot was an annual payment made to the Pope as this was a pre-Reformation England. But a scot-ale was probably the most curious thing and it was festivety held by the lord of the manor, and an ale was a party, a massive gathering, lots of  drinking, which is how we got to our modern version of ale today. So bride-ale was a wedding feast originally and that gave us the word bridal. But this scot-ale, as I say, was held by the lord of the manor, but attendance was compulsory. In other words, every single person in the villiage or the town had to go to this scot-ale. But it also carried a really hefty cover charge, hence thу scot. In other word, you had to pay to be there, even if you didn't want to go. So I think it was divided between fairly unhappy villagers who went, paid their money, and simply stood there for the sake of it, and others who decided to get in on the action, or the spirit of the thing, and then became very, very heady on ale. But scot-free was something trhose people who went to the scot-ale did non benefit from. They had to pay this cover charge. But scot all was about payment and taxes.