ostracism

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English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
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Etymology[edit]

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ὀστρακισμός (ostrakismós, banishment by means of voting with pot shards), from ὀστρακίζω (ostrakízō, ostracize) + -ισμός (-ismós, -ism), from ὄστρακον (óstrakon, clay pot).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

ostracism (countable and uncountable, plural ostracisms)

  1. (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. [], London: Printed by Iohn Wolfe, for Edward White, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Perimedes the Blacke-smith (Miscellaneous Tracts Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I), [London: s.n., 1867?], →OCLC, page 13:
      Take the ſweete herbe called pleaſant content; with that make a perfume about your bed chamber and where you dyne: the ſavour of this is as ſure a repulſe to exile melancholie, as the oſtracisme was to the noble of Athens.
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 32, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes [], book II, London: [] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount [], →OCLC:
      Witnesse the Ostracisme amongst the Athenians, and the Petalisme among the Siracusans.
  2. (figuratively) Banishment by some general consent. [from 17th c.]
    • 1602–1603, Lady Arbella Stuart, edited by Sara Jayne Steen, The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart, New York, N.Y.: 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 []
  3. Temporary exclusion from a community or society.

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Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from French ostracisme.

Noun[edit]

ostracism n (uncountable)

  1. ostracism

Declension[edit]

Swedish[edit]

Noun[edit]

ostracism c

  1. ostracism

Declension[edit]

Declension of ostracism 
Uncountable
Indefinite Definite
Nominative ostracism ostracismen
Genitive ostracisms ostracismens

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