ostracism

Noun

ostracism (countable and uncountable, plural ostracisms)

1. (historical) In ancient Athens (and some other cities), the temporary banishment by popular vote of a citizen considered dangerous to the state.
   • For this manner of banishment for a time, called ostracismos, was no punishment for any fault committed, but a mitigation and taking away of the envy of the people, which delighted to pluck down their stomacks that too much seemed to exceed in greatness: […]1579, Thomas North, Plutarch's Lives, volume 2, translation of original by Plutarch, published 1898, Themistocles, page 35
   • Take the ſweete herbe called pleaſant content; with that make a perfume about your bed chamber and where you dyne: the ſavour of this is as ſure a repulſe to exile melancholie, as the oſtracisme was to the noble of Athens.1588, Robert Greene, Perimedes the Blacke-smith. […], London: Printed by Iohn Wolfe, for Edward White, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Perimedes the Blacke-smith (Miscellaneous...
2. (figuratively) Banishment by some general consent.
   • If I have deserved the land should spue me out, I will feed my selfe with the idle and windy conceite of an Ostracisme, and my unregarded poore selfe shall be all the richesse and commpany I crave to transport and if a Princes word […]1602–1603, Lady Arbella Stuart, edited by Sara Jayne Steen, The Letters of Lady Arbella Stuart, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, published 1994, page 171
3. Temporary exclusion from a community or society.

   Synonyms:

   ostracization, petalism, shunning, avoidance, blackballing, blacklisting, discommendation, silent treatment