Ostracize — began with potsherds

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August 29, 2014

___ Ostracize literally means to ‘vote out.’

It derives from the Greek ostrakizein, that means to banish by voting with potsherds.

Yes, potsherds, or broken pottery — ostraka in Greek. The act of ostracizing originated in Athens. Each year at an annual assembly Athenians were asked if they wanted to hold an ostracism. If they did, an official ostracism was held two months later, where they submitted names of those to be considered to ostracize. Potsherds were used as voting tokens. The citizens scratched the names of those they wanted to ostracize, and dropped their votes in urns. Officials sorted the names in piles. The persons whose piles had the most ostraka were banished from Athens for 10 years.

This was not a political process; ’twas a social process, a formal one at that. Folks nominated to be ostracized were oft considered a threat to the state. However, it could be for any reason. What mattered was the number of potsherds that had their names.

Definition via Webster’s New World College Dictionary:
1. To exclude from a group or society ….
2. To banish by ostracism, as in ancient Greece.

Today ostracism is not a formal act, yet ’tis a bit organized, as one group may collectively ostracize an individual, by not-inviting them to parties, for example, or openly shunning them.

Have you ever felt ostrasized?

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