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Ostracize

//ˈɒstɹəsaɪz// verb

Definitions

Verb

1
To ban a person from a city for five or ten years through the procedure of ostracism. British, English, Oxford, US, historical, transitive
"Republics have been accused of being ungrateful. Aristides was ostracised for being called the Just, and Themistocles banished, after saving his country from desolation."
2
avoid speaking to or dealing with wordnet
3
To exclude a person from a community or from society by not communicating with them or by refusing to acknowledge their presence; to refuse to associate with or talk to; to shun. British, English, Oxford, US, broadly
"You then moſt Noble Equivocations and Alluſions, whom Rhetorick would Oſtraciſe, ſeek Revenge for your Baniſhment; [...]"
4
expel from a community or group wordnet

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ὀστρακίζω (ostrakízō, “to banish from a city by ostracism”), from ὄστρᾰκον (óstrăkon, “earthenware vessel; fragment of such a vessel, potsherd”) (from the fact that when voting was held to decide whether to banish people, their names were inscribed on potsherds) + -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō, suffix forming verbs)). The English word is cognate with French ostraciser.

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