Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Ostracism |
OstracismNoun1. The state of being banished or ostracized (excluded from society by general consent). 2. The act of excluding someone from society by general consent. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "ostracism" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1601. (references) |
Etymology: Ostracism \Os"tra*cism\, noun. [from Greek expression, from to ostracize. See Ostracize.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
In the Athenian democracy ostracism was not a term describing social exclusion but a legal process of the democracy under which a single citizen was exiled for a 10 year period without other loss of rights.The word ostracism comes from the Greek word ostracon (ὄστρακον) meaning pottery fragment or potsherd. In a world short of papyrus (an expensive import from Egypt) casual sketches, note-taking, and balloting were performed on fragments of pottery. In January of each year the assembly took a vote on ostracism. If at the designated assembly meeting there were at least 6,000 ballots cast, whichever citizen received a simple majority of the votes was exiled for 10 years on penalty of death if he remained in Attica. The citizen lost the right to participate in politics by virtue of his absence, but his property was not confiscated, and he could appoint a manager to deal with his affairs and forward any income.
The minimum figure of 6,000 ballots required has been interpreted by historians to mean that an attendance of 6,000 citizens at an assembly may have been a high number rather than a regularly expected monthly number.
Many well-known politicians of democracy were ostracized at one time or another, and periodically the democracy passed special laws recalling the ostracized to deal with special circumstances. For instance, Aristides returned to the service of Athens in the recall during the Persian Wars and materially aided the state at the Battle of Salamis.
To be added:
Some citizens known to have been ostracized:
- Aristides and the ostracism anecdote
- evidence for potential ostracism fraud
- Aristides, 480s
- Cimon, late 460s
- Themistocles, late 470s
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ostracism."
Synonym: OstracismSynonym: banishment (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Disapprobation | Dispraise, discommendation; blame, censure, obloquy; detraction; disparagement, depreciation; denunciation; condemnation; ostracism; black list. |
Punishment | Lash, scaffold; (instrument of punishment); imprisonment; (restraint); transportation, banishment, expulsion, exile, involuntary exile, ostracism; penal servitude, hard labor; galleys; beating;Verb: flagellation, fustigation, gantlet, strappado, estrapade, bastinado, argumentum baculinum, stick law, rap on the knuckles, box on the ear; blow; (impulse); stripe, cuff, kick, buffet, pummel; slap, slap in the face; wipe, douse; coup de grace; torture, rack; picket, picketing; dragonnade. |
Seclusion Exclusion | Exclusion, excommunication, banishment, exile, ostracism, proscription; cut, cut direct; dead cut. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Ostracism |
| English words defined with "ostracism": Petalism. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "ostracism": Inventors Punished ♦ Whirlwind. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Ostracism" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Romanian (ostracism), Swedish (ostracism). |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Civil Liberties | Mauritania | The small number of known converts from Islam have suffered no social ostracism, and there have been no reports of societal or governmental attempts to punish them. (references) |
Morocco | Citizens who convert to Christianity and other religions sometimes face social ostracism, and in the past a small number have faced short periods of questioning by the authorities. (references) | |
Human Rights | Turkey | In one case, an alleged victim faced social ostracism and divorce after publicly accusing a policeman of rape. (references) |
Minorities | Jordan | Muslims who convert to other religions often fact social ostracism, threats, and abuse from their families and Muslim religious leaders. (references) |
Jordan | Interfaith relationships may lead to ostracism and, in some cases, violence against the couple or feuds between members of the couple's families. (references) | |
Political Economy | Morocco | Although non-Muslim foreigners may practice their religions freely, missionaries who proselytized faced expulsion, and converts from Islam to other religions continued to experience social ostracism. (references) |
Worker Rights | Tajikistan | Victims of trafficking face psychological stress, social ostracism, blackmail, and extortion, and in certain cases, physical abuse. (references) |
India | Once removed from their communities to an area dominated by a different culture and a different language or dialect, it is difficult for victims of trafficking to find their way back home, where they may face social ostracism. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Ostracism" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Ostracism" is used about 37 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 37 | 56,631 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
ostracism | 6 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "ostracism"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | tëhuajtje, izolim (alienation, confinement, insularity, isolation, seclusion, segregation, sequester, sequestration). (various references) | |
Arabic | النفي من غير محاكمة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | остракизъм (outlawry, taboo), отлъчване от обществото, изгнание (banishment, exile, expatriation, expulsion, proscription). (various references) | |
Chinese | 流" (Exile). (various references) | |
Czech | ignorování (snub). (various references) | |
Farsi | محرومیت ازحقوق اجتماعی ووجهه ملی , نفی بلد, طرد. (various references) | |
French | ostracisme. (various references) | |
German | Verbannung (banishment, banishments, exile, exiling, proscription, relegation). (various references) | |
Greek | εξοστρακισμόσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | "וי (ban, banishment, excommunication). (various references) | |
Hungarian | cserépszavazás, száműzetés (banishment, exile, expatriation, proscription), száműzés (banishment, deportation, expatriation, hinge, proclamation, proscription), kiközösítés (excommunication), cegél. (various references) | |
Italian | ostracismo, esilio (banishment, exil, exile). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | '斥 (boycott, expulsion, rejection), "逐 (dismissal, ejection, expulsion). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ひ"せき (rejection), つまはじき (black sheep), ほうちく (dismissal, ejection, expulsion), かいがらついほう, オストラシズ , むらはちぶ, はいせき (boycott, expulsion, rejection). (various references) | |
Manx | dooney magh (ostracize, seclude). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ostracismay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ostracismo (limbo, relegation), esquecimento (failure, forgetfulness, lethe, limbo, neglect, oblivion, omission). (various references) | |
Romanian | ostracizare, ostracism. (various references) | |
Russian | остракизм. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | ostracizam. (various references) | |
Spanish | ostracismo. (various references) | |
Swedish | uteslutning (exclusion, expulsion, seclusion), landsförvisning (banishment). (various references) | |
Thai | การขับไล่. (various references) | |
Turkish | toplumdan uzaklaştırma, sürgün etme, sürgün (banishment, bud, deportation, deportee, exile, expatriation, expellee, growth, outgrowth, outlaw, outlawry, proscription, relegation, shoot, spine, spray, sprout, tiller, transport, transportation, twig), ilgisini kesme. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | вигнання із суспільства (outlawry), остракізм. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | sự tẩy chay (boycott), sự phát vãng sự khai trừ, sự đ y (banishment, deportation). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ostracism": ostracisms. (additional references) | |
| |
"Ostracism" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: astrarium, obstracism, oistrakhs, ostrachism, ostracisim, ostricise. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ostracism" (pronounced ô"strusi'zum) |
| 7 | -r u s i' z u m | empiricism, lyricism. |
| 6 | -u s i' z u m | monasticism, mysticism, narcissism, classicism, criticism, cynicism, eroticism, fanaticism, gnosticism, romanticism, skepticism, stoicism. |
| 5 | -s i' z u m | racism, sexism. |
| 4 | -i' z u m | absenteeism, absolutism, abolitionism, activism, adventurism, agrarianism, alcoholism, altruism, amateurism, anachronism, aneurism, animism, antagonism, aphorism, astigmatism, atavism, atheism, authoritarianism, autism, baptism, barbarism, bilingualism, bolshevism, boosterism, botulism, mechanism, mercantilism, mesmerism, metabolism, methodism, microorganism, militarism, minimalism, modernism, monetarism, monism, monotheism, moralism, multiculturalism, multilateralism, mutualism, nationalism, nativism, naturalism, negativism, nepotism, neutralism, nihilism, obstructionism, opportunism, optimism, organism, overoptimism, pacifism, paganism, parallelism, parkinsonism, parochialism, pastoralism, paternalism, patriotism, perfectionism, pessimism, pharisaism, pietism, plagiarism, pluralism, polymorphism, polytheism, populism, positivism, pragmatism, professionalism, protectionism, provincialism, puritanism, racialism, radicalism, realism, cannibalism, capitalism, catechism, centralism, chauvinism, collectivism, colonialism, commercialism, communism, conservatism, consumerism, corporatism, counterterrorism, creationism, cronyism, cubism, dandyism, defeatism, deism, despotism, determinism, diamagnetism, diastrophism, dimorphism, dogmatism, Druidism, dualism, dwarfism, dynamism, egalitarianism, egoism, egotism, electromagnetism, elitism, embolism, emotionalism, entrepreneurialism, environmentalism, ergotism, escapism, ethnocentrism, euphemism, evangelism, expansionism, expressionism, extremism, factionalism, fascism, fatalism, favoritism, federalism, feminism, ferromagnetism, fetishism, feudalism, formalism, fundamentalism, futurism, geotropism, gradualism, hedonism, helotism, heroism, hooliganism, humanism, hypnotism, idealism, illusionism, imperialism, impressionism, incrementalism, individualism, intellectualism, internationalism, interventionism, Irredentism, isolationism, isomorphism, jingoism, journalism, leftism, legalism, lesbianism, liberalism, magnetism, mannerism, masochism, materialism, recidivism, relativism, republicanism, revisionism, rheumatism, sadism, satanism, sectarianism, secularism, sensationalism, separatism, socialism, statism, supernaturalism, surrealism, symbolism, synergism, territorialism, terrorism, theism, tokenism, totalitarianism, tourism, truism, unionism, vandalism, vegetarianism, vigilantism, voluntarism, volunteerism, voyeurism. |
| 3 | -z u m | bosom, microcosm, neoplasm, orgasm, phantasm, prism, careerism, chasm, cytoplasm, enthusiasm, iconoclasm, ism, sarcasm, schism, spasm. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: acrotisms. | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-i-m-o-r-s-s-t" | |
-1 letter: acrotism, amorists, massicot. | |
-2 letters: amorist, aorists, aristos, atomics, castors, cosmist, costars, mascots, mastics, misacts, miscast, missort, mosaics, osmatic, racisms, racists, sacrist, satoris, scotias, sitcoms, somatic, tsarism. | |
-3 letters: across, actors, aorist, aortic, aristo, ascots, assort, atomic, caroms, castor, coasts, coatis, costar, crasis, crissa, crista, macros, maists, mascot, mastic, micros, misact, morass, mosaic, osmics, racism. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-i-m-o-r-s-s-t" | |
+1 letter: costmaries, ostracisms. | |
+2 letters: masticators, microstates, monarchists. | |
+3 letters: achromatisms, atmospherics, choirmasters, chrismations, commiserates, commissariat, comparatists, conservatism, corporatisms, creationisms, harmonicists, macrocytosis, miscreations, obscurantism, postorgasmic, romanticises, romanticisms, romanticists, sarcomatosis. | |
+4 letters: anticonsumers, catastrophism, chromaticisms, chromatolysis, commissariats, conservatisms, customariness, dichromatisms, gastrectomies, gastrocnemius, masticatories, microanalysts, microcassette, microcrystals, myocarditises, obscurantisms, pictorialisms, radiochemists, sacerdotalism. | |
+5 letters: abstractionism, autoeroticisms, carcinomatoses, carcinomatosis, catastrophisms, ceremonialists, chrestomathies, commercialists, commiserations, comparativists, corporativisms, discriminators, doctrinairisms, documentarists, ergastoplasmic, lachrymosities, microcassettes, pococurantisms, sacerdotalisms, subatmospheric, thermoplastics, tracheostomies, trichomoniases, trichomoniasis, trichromatisms. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Quotations: Non-fiction 6. Usage Frequency 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Translations: Modern | 9. Derivations 10. Rhymes 11. Anagrams 12. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
