英和和英

名詞

folk devil (複数形 folk devils)

1. (idiomatic, sociology) A person or type of person blamed by the public for various ills, as during a moral panic.
   • 1987 July 9, Lohr, Steve, “Newcastle Journal: Half of England where jobs are as rare as Tories”, in New York Times‎^[1], retrieved 27 February 2009:

     It may be true, as Fred Robinson, a senior researcher at Newcastle University said, "Many people view Mrs. Thatcher as a kind of folk devil.

   • 1996 December 18, Verkaik, Robert, “‘Crash’ tackling”, in The Independent (UK)‎^[2], retrieved 8 June 2014:

     "Every time things become problematic we start careering towards social causes and pick on a folk devil to attribute all evil."

   • 2013 October 20, Walker, Jesse, “Conspiracies: Five things they don’t want you to know”, in Boston Globe‎^[3], retrieved 8 June 2014:

     There is always a tendency, in the mainstream as much as the fringes, to blame real or imagined social problems on a folk devil.

同意語

• scapegoat; see also Thesaurus:scapegoat

上位語

• pariah; see also Thesaurus:outcast