I finally added the first installment of little etymology curiosities…here it is:

I learned about the origins of this word when reading Plutarch. In one of his biographical sketches (I don’t remember which), he explains how ancient Greeks in Athens would periodically vote to kick someone out of Athenian society. Individual citizens did this by writing the name of a person they wanted to banish from the city on a fragment of broken pottery. The word for a pottery sherd was ostrakon (ὄστρακον), hence the English word ostracize. This voting and exile process was a mechanism developed to address those who accrued what was viewed as excessive power and influence.