ostracise
to exclude someone from a group
TRANSLATION
ostracise = jemanden ausschließen, ausgrenzen --- GOOGLE INDEX ostracise: approximately 2,300,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Serbia formally became a candidate for European Union membership late Thursday in a significant advance for the nation, once OSTRACIZED for its role in the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
(New York Times)
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Pain can be alleviated by morphine but the pain of social OSTRACISM cannot be taken away.
- British film director Derek Jarman
(New York Times)
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Pain can be alleviated by morphine but the pain of social OSTRACISM cannot be taken away.
- British film director Derek Jarman
Did you
know?
ostracise (U.S. English - ostracize)
verb
- to avoid someone intentionally or to prevent them from taking part in the activities of a group
ostracism
noun
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
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One of the most popular animal myths involves the ostrich. Many people believe they like to bury their head in the sand. However, this is a myth that likely originated from Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), who wrote that ostriches "imagine when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed." So it is easy to imagine that the word ostracise - to exclude someone - is somehow related to the behaviour of the ostrich. The fact is, ostrich and ostracise are two completely different words with different origins.
Ostrich derives from the 12th century Old French word ostruce. The Latin term for the bird was struthiocamelus, meaning a "sparrow camel," a word coined after the first encounters with ostriches, probably because of the animal’s long neck. Eventually struthio stood on its own and was converted from French into the "ostrich" we know today.
Ostracise stems from the Greek term ostrakon, the literal meaning of which was "broken pottery." In ancient Greek cities, a citizen whose power or influence was considered dangerous to the state was sent into exile for five or more years. Any candidate for such banishment was the subject of a democratic vote. Each person eligible to vote would write down the name of the candidate they saw fit for banishment on a fragment of broken pottery. The pieces were then counted, and if the person received enough votes, he/she would be "ostracized."
(source: Oxford English Dictionary)
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SYNONYMS
banish, blackball, blacklist, exclude, excommunicate, exile, shun, snub
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Smokers are ostracized more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world."
verb
- to avoid someone intentionally or to prevent them from taking part in the activities of a group
ostracism
noun
(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)
---
One of the most popular animal myths involves the ostrich. Many people believe they like to bury their head in the sand. However, this is a myth that likely originated from Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79), who wrote that ostriches "imagine when they have thrust their head and neck into a bush, that the whole of their body is concealed." So it is easy to imagine that the word ostracise - to exclude someone - is somehow related to the behaviour of the ostrich. The fact is, ostrich and ostracise are two completely different words with different origins.
Ostrich derives from the 12th century Old French word ostruce. The Latin term for the bird was struthiocamelus, meaning a "sparrow camel," a word coined after the first encounters with ostriches, probably because of the animal’s long neck. Eventually struthio stood on its own and was converted from French into the "ostrich" we know today.
Ostracise stems from the Greek term ostrakon, the literal meaning of which was "broken pottery." In ancient Greek cities, a citizen whose power or influence was considered dangerous to the state was sent into exile for five or more years. Any candidate for such banishment was the subject of a democratic vote. Each person eligible to vote would write down the name of the candidate they saw fit for banishment on a fragment of broken pottery. The pieces were then counted, and if the person received enough votes, he/she would be "ostracized."
(source: Oxford English Dictionary)
---
SYNONYMS
banish, blackball, blacklist, exclude, excommunicate, exile, shun, snub
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"Smokers are ostracized more in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world."
