hostage vs scapegoat

hostage

verb
  • To give (someone or something) as a hostage to (someone or something else). 

  • To hold (someone or something) hostage, especially in a way that constrains or controls the person or thing held, or in order to exchange for something else. 

noun
  • The condition of being held as security or to compel someone else to act or not act in a particular way. 

  • Something that constrains one's actions because it is at risk. 

  • A person seized in order to compel another party to act (or refrain from acting) in a certain way, because of the threat of harm to the hostage. 

  • A person given as a pledge or security for the performance of the conditions of a treaty or similar agreement, such as to ensure the status of a vassal. 

  • One who is compelled by something, especially something that poses a threat; one who is not free to choose their own course of action. 

scapegoat

verb
  • To unfairly blame or punish someone for some failure; to make a scapegoat of. 

noun
  • Someone unfairly blamed or punished for some failure. 

  • In the Mosaic Day of Atonement ritual, a goat symbolically imbued with the sins of the people, and sent out alive into the wilderness while another was sacrificed. 

How often have the words hostage and scapegoat occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )