BharatNotes Ostracise
verb (transitive)Usage in a UPSC answer
When dissent is met not with rebuttal but with a coordinated effort to ostracise the critic, a democracy quietly forfeits the very pluralism that legitimises its institutions.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Word Family
ostracism (n), ostracised (adj), ostracising (v pres.p), ostracization (n)
Root
Greek ostrakon = potsherd, tile → ostrakizein = to banish by voting with potsherds
Etymology
From Greek ostrakizein 'to banish by voting with potsherds', from ostrakon 'potsherd, tile' (on which Athenian citizens scratched the name of the person to be exiled). Adopted into English in the early 17th century.
Memory Hook
Picture an OYSTER shell (ostrakon) being scratched with a name to vote someone OUT - in ancient Athens, the shell decided who got cast aside.
How This Word Works in UPSC Writing
To exclude a person or group from a community by common consent. It is a precise and valuable verb in GS1 and GS2 for social exclusion, and it carries a specific mechanism: exclusion imposed by the group rather than by law. That makes it the right word for social boycott, and the wrong word for exclusion produced by statute or policy.
Don’t Confuse It With
Ostracise is exclusion by collective social decision. Boycott is an organised refusal to deal, which may be political or economic. Marginalise pushes to the periphery without formal expulsion. Segregate separates groups physically or institutionally, often with legal backing.
Hindi Meaning
बहिष्कार करना (bahishkār karnā); सामाजिक बहिष्कार is social ostracism.
Common Questions
- What does ostracise mean?
- To exclude someone from a group or community by the common consent of its members.
- Is ostracism the same as legal exclusion?
- No. Ostracism is imposed socially by a community. Exclusion created by law or policy is better described as discrimination or segregation.
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