DictionaryRoot: -ismos
Greek
-ismos
an action, practice, or system
Forms
- -ismos
- -ism — The ending shortened through Latin, French, and English.
Origin
Greek -ismos formed nouns associated with verbs, including many in -izein.
Note
The familiar “system of belief” use is one later development, not its only original function.
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noun
ostracism
AH-struh-siz-uhm/ˈɑːstrəsɪzəm/
Exclusion from a community or group through collective rejection.
Etymology
A potsherd was a ballot: Athenian citizens scratched on it the name of someone they wanted banished. The name of this political procedure broadened to deliberate exclusion from society or a group.