Ostrakon

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A piece of pottery or stone that was historically inscribed and employed in ancient democracies for voting or making legal choices
2. An ancient shard, often inscribed, used for the purpose of casting votes or documenting judicial decisions in historical contexts
3. A fragment of pottery or stone used in antiquity for writing, often associated with voting or legal decisions in democratic societies

Etymology: In ancient Athens, a citizen who wanted a rival exiled would scratch that man's name onto a broken piece of pottery and drop it into a voting urn. The Greek for such a fragment was "ostrakon," and it gave English its word for an inscribed potsherd. The Athenian practice of ostracism took its name from the same object, so the sherd and the political ritual share one root. The Greek word originally meant a hard outer covering, such as a shell or a bone's hard casing, and only later came to denote broken clay. That shift from shell to shard makes sense once you picture the tough, brittle surfaces of both. Archaeologists now value these sherds because thousands survive, many carrying names, graffiti, and accounting notes that record everyday life in the city.