scot-free

Reader's Digest 10月号を読み始めたので The Remains of the Dayは一時中断です。
さて、昨日taxingを取り上げましたが、taxに関係する単語にまた出会いました。 その表現はReader's Digest 10月号に掲載のパナソニックの広告文ありました。
You are under arrest!
YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND GUILTY
of letting your eco-terrorist friends off scot-free!
Acuse suspect. Call out your friends!
The environment is too important.
It's time to let the world know!
Have a friend that could be doing more for the environment?
この "scot-free" は初めて見ますが、ここでの意味は文脈から推測できますが、語源にも興味が湧く表現です。　RD上広告はパナソニックの次ぎのサイトの案内だけで
www.panasonic.asia/channele/rd
そこにはRD上の広告と同じ画面がありパナソニックのFacebookへの入り口になっています。　さて、 "scot-free" を辞書で見ます。
・Cambridge Dictionaries Online: without receiving the deserved or expected punishment or without being harmed: The court let her off scot-free.
・Macmillan Dictionary: get away/get off scot-free: to avoid punishment for doing something that deserves punishment: Criminals such as these cannot be allowed to get away scot-free.
・American Heritage Dictionary:
1. Without having to pay: got away from the restaurant scot-free.
2. Without incurring any penalty or punishment: came away from the incident scot-free.
やはりね、そして語源を見ると、
From Old English scotfreo (“exempt from royal tax”), scot: (UK, historical) A local tax, paid originally to the lord or ruler and later to a sheriff.
"scot" は税金だったのですね。