ostracize
verbUK /ˈɒstɹəsaɪz/ · /ˈɑstɹəˌsaɪz/
Etymology From Ancient Greek ὀστρακίζω (ostrakízō, “to banish from a city by ostracism”), from ὄστρᾰκον (óstrăkon, “earthenware vessel; fragment of such a vessel, potsherd”) (from the fact that when voting was held to decide whether to banish people, their names were inscribed on potsherds) + -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō, suffix forming verbs)). The English word is cognate with French ostraciser.
1
British, English, Oxford, US, Historical To ban a person from a city for five or ten years through the procedure of ostracism.
- Republics have been accused of being ungrateful. Aristides was ostracised for being called the Just, and Themistocles banished, after saving his country from desolation.1836 December 15, Eleazer Wheelock Ripley, “The President’s Message”, in Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the Second Session of the Twenty-fourth Congress: […] (United States House of Representatives), volume XIII, Washington, D.C.: Printed and published by Gales and Seaton, published 1837, →OCLC, column 1097:
- [T]he person who was ostracised was obliged to leave Athens within ten days after the sentence, and unless a vote of the people recalled him before the expiration of that time, to stay in exile for ten years.1840, “OSTRACISM”, in [George Long], editor, The Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, volumes XVII (Organ–Pertinax), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], →OCLC, page 55, column 2:
1 more example
- The Athenian Hyperbolus, who had been ostracized some years before by the coalition of Nikias and Alkibiades, together with their respective partisans—ostracized (as Thucydides tells us) not from any fear of his power and over-transcendent influence, but from his bad character and from his being a disgrace to the city—and thus ostracized by an abuse of the institution—was now resident at Samos.[1849], George Grote, “Twenty-first Year of the War.—Oligarchy of Four Hundred at Athens.”, in A History of Greece from the Earliest Period to the Close of the Generation Contemporary with Alexander the Great. [...] In Four Volumes, 2nd edition, volume III, New York, N.Y.: W. L. Allison Co., publishers, →OCLC, part II (Continuation of Historical Greece), page 203:
2
British, English, Oxford, US, Broadly To exclude a person from a community or from society by not communicating with them or by refusing to acknowledge their presence; to refuse to associate with or talk to; to shun.
- You then moſt Noble Equivocations and Alluſions, whom Rhetorick would Oſtraciſe, ſeek Revenge for your Baniſhment; [...]1704, [Antoine Furetière], “Bombast’s Speech to His Army”, in The Rebellion: Or, An Account of the Late Civil-wars, in the Kingdom of Eloquence, London: Printed [for John Nutt ...], →OCLC, page 48:
- The inflexible advocate[s] of the people's rights, were either expelled the Senate Chamber, ostracised, or immolated on the reeking altars of patriotism, by the encrimsoned sword of slaughtering persecution.1811 July 4, Henry A[lexander] S[cammell] Dearborn, An Oration, Pronounced at Boston, on the Fourth Day of July, 1811, before the Supreme Executive and in the Presence of the Bunker-Hill Association, Boston, Mass.: Printed by Munroe & French, printer to the state, →OCLC, pages 4–5:
4 more examples
- [O]thers may wonder at the mawkish taste of a community which, instead of ostracising such a palpable charlatan at once, attended and praised all that he had to say!1841, Anthony Grumbler [pseudonym; David Hoffman], chapter VII, in Miscellaneous Thoughts on Men, Manners, and Things, Baltimore, Md.: Published by Plaskitt & Cugle, →OCLC, page 179:
- No party worthy of the name will submit, permanently, to any regime which ostracises its best men and selects the worst, which has become an epidemic condition of party politics, and may take off most of what is worth recognizing in the pride of our boasted institutions.1852 August, “Death of Henry Clay: The Convention System”, in Democratic Review, volume II, number II (New Series; volume XXXI, number CLXX, overall), New York, N.Y.: Published at the office of the Democratic Review, […], →OCLC, page 151, column 1:
- Fashion not only sustains bad writers, but ostracizes and banishes good ones. [William] Shakespeare's writings were popular while he lived, but almost forgotten for two centuries after his death.1860 January, “Art IX.—Ancient and Modern Art and Literature.”, in J[ames] D[unwoody] B[rownson] De Bow, editor, De Bow’s Review and Industrial Resources, Statistics, etc.: […], volume III (New Series; volume XXVIII overall), number I, New Orleans, La.; Washington, D.C.: [J. D. B. De Bow], →OCLC, page 83:
- Q. Have you any knowledge aside from your own case of their socially ostracizing a man?—A. There are almost a dozen in this room, I guess, that I know of; perhaps a dozen.1877 January 13, [Francis] Kernan (questioner), Edward Howard (witness), Mississippi. Testimony as to Denial of Elective Franchise in Mississippi, at the Elections of 1875 and 1876, […] (The Miscellaneous Documents of the Senate of the United States for the Second Session of the Forty-forth Congress; volume III, number 45), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 22:
- Derived terms
- ostracizable, ostracisable, ostracization, ostracisation, ostracized, ostracised, ostracizer, ostraciser, ostracizing, ostracising, unostracized, unostracised
- Related terms
- ostracism, ostracon, ostrakon, ostracum, ostracy, silent treatment