ὀστρακίζω

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /os.tra.kíz.dɔː/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /os.traˈci.zo/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /os.traˈci.zo/^[1]

Forms

ὀστρᾰκίζω (ostrakízō) ^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ὄστρακον (óstrakon, “potsherd”) with the verbal suffix -ίζω (-ízō): to banish by a vote cast on potsherds, on which the voters wrote the name of the man to be exiled.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Thucydides uses the passive of men who were ostracised from Athens.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Ostracism was an Athenian institution by which a leading citizen was sent into exile for a time.^[2] Andocides and Aristotle's Constitution of the Athenians describe it, and Aristotle's Politics discusses it as a political practice.^[2][4] Aristotle notes that it was used at Argos as well, and a scholiast adds Megara and Miletus.^[4]

English took ostracize from a Latinized form in the 1640s, also in the figurative sense of excluding someone from society.^[3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Thucydides uses it for ostracism at Athens.^[4][2]
• 5th–4th century BC – Andocides mentions men who were ostracised.^[4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle describes the practice at Athens and Argos.^[4][2]
• 1640s – English borrows ostracize.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ostracize, banish a citizen for a time by a vote cast on potsherds.^[4][2]
2. To practise ostracism.^[2]

Related words

• ὄστρακον (óstrakon)
• ὀστρακισμός (ostrakismós)
• English ostracize

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press