AIBU and racist (by accident/ignorance)?

[RonnieBarkingMad]

I got snapped at this morning because I said “and the bastard got away scot free” talking about somebody horrible in the news and someone said me saying that is offensive to Scottish people because it references their breaking away from England and my comment made me anti-Scottish. I obviously didn’t mean to be as I wasn’t being nasty about Scottish people, I don’t even know if the man I was talking about in the news is Scottish, I was just saying it as a general phrase. I can fully accept if I am as It wasn’t until this site that I knew describing a child “throwing a paddy” was offensive to Irish people - it was a phrase I had grown up with and I have never thought it offensive to a group of people, obviously now I know I don’t use it any more. Is this the same? I won’t say it anymore if this is the case. Would this offend you if you are Scottish and an English person said this? Should also note that my phone auto corrected “scot free” to a capital S which I had to change which may hold some weight to their point.

Doesn't this mean tax free or something like that? Or someone who has not paid? It's nothing to do with Scotland leaving the Union, that's for sure!

Absolutely nonsense - no Scottish person I know would be remotely offended by that - if they were then that’s because they’re a complete idiot.

This idiom comes from the old English word sceot, meaning a ‘tax’. People were scot-free if they didn’t have to pay the tax.

So, there you go.

I’m Scottish and it didn’t offend me as I had no idea that the phrase was in reference to that. Now I do, I’m still not offended

"The expression 'Scot-free' originates from the Scandanavian word, 'Skat,' which means “tax” or “payment.” The word mutated into 'scot' as the name of redistributive taxation meant to provide relief to the poor during the 10th century"

the person who accused you on this was being ignorant.

Well the phrase has nothing to do with being Scottish or Scotland so you can now snap back at them and tell them they are the ignorant one 👍🏼

Yeah that's not where the phrase comes from so they're ignorant as well as rude.

Two seconds on Google gives you this:

scotch free / scot free. Getting away with something “scot free” has nothing to do with the Scots (or Scotch). The scot was a medieval tax; if you evaded paying it you got off scot free.

Whoever snapped at you is an idiot. The origin is, as a PP said, to do with tax: www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/scot-free.html

I'm Scottish and not offended. I also don't think that's where the term originated from

YABU for not doing the most basic research before posting.

Thank you all I wasn’t sure so I felt like I couldn’t defend myself properly at the time.

I think you got away with this one, OP... 😉

Yes, you have to say “bame-free” nowadays.

It's not racist if you didn't mean it to be. It's all about your motivation for saying something, not necessarily what you say, that makes a person's words racist.

I'm Scottish and I'm definitely not offended, it's just a saying. People are too quick to be offended these days.

It's not racist if you didn't mean it to be

It's not racist AT ALL.

Iklboo I know, I was speaking generally.