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Osʹtracisʹm

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Oyster-shelling, blackballing, or expelling. Clisʹthenēs gave the people of Attica the power of removing from the state, without making a definite charge, any leader of the people likely to subvert the government. Each citizen wrote his vote on an earthenware table (ostracon), whence the term.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Osiris (in Egyptian mythology)
Osmand
Osnaburg
Osprey or Ospray (a corruption of Latin ossifragus, the bone-breaker)
Ossa
Osseo
Ossian
Ostend Manifesto
Oster-Monath
Ostler
Ostracism
Ostrich
Ostrich Brains
Ostrich Eggs in Churches
Ostrich Stomachs
Ostringers, Sperviters, Falconers
Oswald’s Well
Othello (in Shakespeare’s tragedy so called)
Othello’s Occupation’s Gone (Shakespeare)
Other Day (The)
Othman, Osman, or Othoman

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Inventors Punished

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Ostracism