Petalism

//ˈpɛtəlɪz(ə)m// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A form of ostracism among the ancient Syracusans by which they temporarily banished a citizen suspected of having dangerous influence or ambition. countable, historical, uncountable

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

Synonyms

All synonyms
ostracism

Example

More examples

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

Etymology

From Middle French petalisme, and its source, Hellenistic Ancient Greek πεταλισμός (petalismós), from πέταλον (pétalon, “leaf”) (because the ballot for banishment was written on olive leaves). By surface analysis, petal + -ism.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.