Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
ostracism
1.
(Gr. Antiq.)
Banishment by popular vote, – a means adopted at Athens to rid the city of a person whose talent and influence gave umbrage.
2.
Banishment; exclusion;
as, social
. ostracism
Public envy is as an
ostracism
, that eclipseth men when they grow too great. Bacon.
Sentenced to a perpetual
ostracism
from the . . . confidence, and honors, and emoluments of his country. A. Hamilton.
Webster 1828 Edition
Ostracism
OSTRACISM
,Noun.
1.
In Grecian antiquity, banishment by the people of Athens, of a person whose merit and influence gave umbrage to them. It takes this name from the shell on which the name or the note of acquittal or condemnation was written. It is however most probable that this shell was a piece of baked earth, rendered by the Latins testa.2.
Banishment; expulsion; separation.Sentenced to a perpetual ostracism from the esteem and confidence, and honors and emoluments of his country.
Definition 2024
ostracism
ostracism
English
Noun
ostracism (countable and uncountable, plural ostracisms)
- (historical) In ancient Athens (and some other cities), the temporary banishment by popular vote of a citizen considered dangerous to the state. [from 16th c.]
- 1579, Thomas North, Plutarch's Lives, volume 2, translation of original by Plutarch, published 1898, Themistocles, page 35:
- For this manner of banishment for a time, called ostracismos, was no punishment for any fault committed, but a mitigation and taking away of the envy of the people, which delighted to pluck down their stomacks that too much seemed to exceed in greatness: […].
- 1588, Robert Greene, “Perimedes the Blacke-Smith”, in Alexander Balloch Grosart, editor, The life and complete works in prose and verse of Robert Greene, volume 7, published 1886, page 19:
- […] with that make a perfume about your bed chamber, and where you dyne, the sauour of this is as sure a repulse to exile melãcholie, as the Ostracisme was to the noble of Athens.
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.32:
- Witnesse the Ostracisme amongst the Athenians, and the Petalisme among the Siracusans.
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- (figuratively) Banishment by some general consent. [from 17th c.]
- 1602—3, Lady Arbella Stuart, Sara Jayne Steen, editor, The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart, New York: Oxford University Press, published 1994, page 171:
- If I have deserved the land should spue me out, I will feed my selfe with the idle and windy conceite of an Ostracisme, and my unregarded poore selfe shall be all the richesse and commpany I crave to transport and if a Princes word […].
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- Temporary exclusion from a community or society.
Synonyms
- (exclusion): ostracization, shunning
Derived terms
Translations
in ancient Greece, the temporary banishment by popular vote
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banishment, exclusion from community
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