ostracize
verb
Robert Brustein
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Ostracize Has Greek Roots
In ancient Greece, citizens whose power or influence threatened the stability of the state could be exiled by a practice called ostracism. Voters would elect to banish another citizen by writing that citizen's name down on a potsherd. Those receiving enough votes would then be subject to temporary exile from the state. Ostracize originated with the meaning "to exile by the ancient method of ostracism," but these days it usually refers to the general exclusion of a person from a group at the agreement of its members.
Examples of ostracize in a Sentence
Suha Musa, TIME, 29 Oct. 2024
Blas can see through the veil because those dismissive, racist remnants still exist: the shaming, the way he’s ostracized, the way he’s dismissed and ignored.
—Samantha Dunn, Orange County Register, 10 Sep. 2024
Eventually, his experiments with robotics lead him to be ostracized by the resistance movement.
—Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, Vulture, 30 Aug. 2024
Describe your past physical self and how you were ostracized because of it.
—Harriette Cole, The Mercury News, 5 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Ostracize.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ostracize. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
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ostracize
verb
from Greek ostrakizein "to banish by voting with pottery fragments," from ostrakon "shell, pottery fragment"
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