The president’s mysterious ‘Scott Free’

From the moment he tweeted “covfefe” in the middle of the night, U.S. President Donald Trump has been perplexing his millions of Twitter followers with cryptic messages.

But this week, a curious person by the name of Scott Free caught the internet’s attention.

The unfamiliar proper noun appeared in a remarkable Trump tweetstorm, in which he wished a long prison sentence on his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen.

“‘Michael Cohen asks judge for no Prison Time,’ ” Trump began. “You mean he can do all of the TERRIBLE, unrelated to Trump, things having to do with fraud, big loans, Taxis, etc., and not serve a long prison term? He makes up stories to get a GREAT & ALREADY reduced deal for himself, and get..... his wife and father-in-law (who has the money?) off Scott Free.”

Which made people wonder: Who is Scott Free?

Some thought he might be a new character in the Russia investigation.

Others thought Trump might be referring to a DC Comics superhero named Scott Free, whose alter ego is Mister Miracle.

But, of course, what Trump meant was “scot-free,” a centuries-old phrase meaning to escape punishment. In less than a half-hour, Merriam-Webster reported that online dictionary searches for the definition or spelling of the word had spiked 3,100 per cent.

Scot-free traces its roots back to a medieval tax called a “scot” that arose in the 14th century, according to Merriam-Webster. The Vikings could also be to blame for the origin of the phrase: “Scot” is derived from the Old Norse words “skot” and also “shot” — yes, like shooting a gun or taking your shot. The Gaelic Etymology of Languages of Western Europe, an1877 dictionary, explains that shot and scot meant the same thing at that time, as in a “contribution that ... is ‘shot’ into the general fund.” Back in those days, if you skirted around the tax, you weren’t Al Capone. You were scot-free.