OSTRACIZE: reminiscent of Greek democracy

　　When society ostracizes a person today it is recalling one of the quainter aspects of Greek democracy. From time to time the Athenians would make up their minds that the influnence of a certain public man was dangerous and unwholesome. On such an occasion the citizens would assemble in the market place and vote as to whether fellow should be banished. They simply wrote the name of the undesirable man down on a tile or potsherd called an ostrakon. There was no special accusation before the vote, no redress after the votes were taken. If 6000 ostrakons were cast, the victim just kept out of the state for 5 or 10 year. That was all. From this custom and from the Greek term osirakon came our word ostracize with its present and somewhat less brutal significance.

　　ROUÉ: once a criminal

　　From the French word rouer that meant "to break on the wheel or "torture on the rack," this word came to us from the Duke of Orleans who was Regent of France around the turn of the 18th century while Louis XV was still a minor, and after whom our city of New Orleans was named. The Duke liked ribaldry and revelry, and so surrounded himself with dissolute and most disreputable people. And quite as in these days when a man will affectionately call another, "you old bastard, you," the Duke addressed these dissipated companions as his dear roués, there wasn’t one of them who shouldn’t have been jailed or stretched on the rack.

　　SAVAGE: forest dweller

　　We move from the Latin silva, “forest,” and silvaticus, also salvaticus, ”(man) of the forest,” through the Old French sauvage to our word savage. The dwellers in towns looked upon the “men of the woods” as wild men and so the word savage gradually took on its present-day meanings of brutality and cruelty.

　　SILLY: originally meant happy

　　When silly was spelled sœlig it meant “blessed” or “happy.” Then “innocent,” “plain,” “rustic,” “simple.” By the 17th century silly conveyed the notion that the person so-called was weak, harmless, and deserving pity, as “this silly, aged king.” And about this date we arrived at modern meaning “foolish.”

　　SKEPTIC: examine carefully

　　The Greek philosopher, Pyrrho, started a new school of thought some three or four centuries before Christ and he and his followers are regarded as the first skeptics. The epithet skeptic was innocent enough at the beginning. It was taken from the Greek word skeptomai which merely meant to “l(fā)ook at something carefully” and “examine” and “consider” it. Pyrrho felt that our physical senses were admittedly unreliable, and that we could, therefore, never know the true nature of things. With this in mind he taught his pupils to look out upon the world with an unruffled indifference, and to more or less permanently suspend judgment. With the passing of time the name skeptic was applied to anyone who questioned things too much, notably to anyone who had doubts about the Christian religion.

　　STIGMA: literally a brand

　　While a stigma with us is an unpleasant mark of disgrace it used to be a lot more painful than that. When the officials stigmatized a petty criminal in 17th –century England, they actually branded him with a red-hot iron. The Newgate Calendar tells of a hangman who was so ignorant that he could only burn the letter “T” for thief on the palm of the culprit, this being the only letter of the alphabet he knew. The word stigma in Greek meant a brand made by a pointed instrument.

　　SUPERCILIOUS: lifted eyebrows

　　Those who wish to be “snooty” and lift their noses in the air are acting out a slang word. Those, however, who prefer to be supercilious and express their disdain by merely raising their eyebrows are portraying a word that is neither touched nor tainted by slang. Our word supercilious is a direct descendant of the Latin supercilium, “haughtiness,” which splits into super, “above,” and cilium, “eyelid.” Raise your eyebrows and there you are, the picture of disdain.