Ostracism

The story of the word

In democratic Athens this was a formal ballot. Once a year the assembly could vote to banish a citizen for ten years, and voters scratched a name on a broken piece of pottery, the cheapest writing surface there was; six thousand sherds made it binding. The exile kept his property and his citizenship, which made ostracism a pressure valve rather than a punishment. Thousands of the sherds have been dug up in Athens, and one cache naming Themistocles was written by only a few hands, which looks a great deal like ballots prepared in advance.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → Latin → English

First recorded

16th century