ostracism

plural ostracisms

1. countablehistoricaluncountableIn ancient Athens (and some other cities), the temporary banishment by popular vote of a citizen considered dangerous to the state.First known use 16th c.

   Witnesse the Ostracisme amongst the Athenians, and the Petalisme among the Siracusans.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 32, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   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: […]

   1579, Thomas North, Plutarch's Lives, volume 2, translation of original by Plutarch, published 1898, Themistocles, page 35

   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.

   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

2. countablefigurativelyuncountableBanishment by some general consent.First known use 17th c.

   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 […]

   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

3. countableuncountableTemporary exclusion from a community or society.

   Synonyms: ostracization, petalism, shunning, avoidance, blackballing, blacklisting, discommendation, ostracization