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will deal with the first traces of the word ostracize, and how the prefix alone reveals its complex history, and one will also delve into how centuries later, the word ostracize has maintained its meaning, a meaning that will signify instant exclusion.
2. Etymology The first traces of the word ostracize in the English language can be found less than four hundred years ago, and after reading through countless passages, the word ostracize has always had a, relatively similar meaning; all that has visibly shifted would be the context in which it’s used. In the seventeenth century, the English poet Andrew Marvell published “Upon The Death of The Lord Hastings” where he wrote to the young Lord Hastings, a supporter of Charles I, that “Therefore the Democratick Stars did rise, And all that Worth from hence did Ostracize.” At this point, one must note the interesting spelling of the word “democratic” which the ending being out of the ordinary to any, present day, English speaker, yet, the spelling of the word ostracize is still intact centuries later. Not only so, but the meaning of the word, when it comes to the notion of excluding an individual due to them being out of the ordinary, has remained nearly identical centuries later. About two hundred years after the publication of “Upon The Death of The Lord Hastings,” British Radical and Liberal statesmen, John Bright, published “Speeches on Questions of Public Policy” which is a collection of speeches he gave in countries such as India, Russia, and even Ireland. In volume one of “Speeches on Questions of Public Policy,” Bright discusses how “Your newspapers...denounced and ostracised hundreds of good men,” when speaking about some sort of, what he seems to think, oppressive government. John Bright uses the word ostracize to indicate how these “good men” have been deprived of some sort of knowledge that would be pivotal to their life and well being. These examples are roughly two hundred years apart,
