Ostraconophobia is the fear of shellfish.[1]Ostracon:
NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin has this phobia. On July 16, 2017, after winning the Overton's 301 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, he was given a 44-pound lobster by crew chief Mike Wheeler (a trophy that is traditionally given to winners at the track), and Hamlin attempted to leap away. "I have a lobster phobia. I don't know why. I just don't like them," Hamlin stated. "I cannot eat dinner if someone beside me is eating lobster. I can't look at it. So as far as I'm concerned, they need to put it back in the water and let it live."[2]
An ostracon (Greek: ὄστρακον ostrakon, plural ὄστρακα ostraka) is a piece of pottery, usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In an archaeological or epigraphical context, ostraca refer to sherds or even small pieces of stone that have writing scratched into them. Usually these are considered to have been broken off before the writing was added; ancient people used the cheap, plentiful and durable broken pieces of pottery around them as convenient places to place writing for a wide variety of purposes, mostly very short inscriptions, but in some cases very long....
In Classical Athens, when the decision at hand was to banish or exile a certain member of society, citizen peers would cast their vote by writing the name of the person on the shard of pottery; the vote was counted and, if unfavorable, the person was exiled for a period of ten years from the city, thus giving rise to the term ostracism....
What's going on here? The etymology of "ostracon" (from the OED) explains it:
Etymology: < ancient Greek ὄστρακον earthen vessel, potsherd, hard shell < the same Indo-European base as the word for bone (see osteo- comb. form), with an -r- suffix (shown also by ancient Greek ὄστρειον oyster n.).
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22 comments:
You really should have been a famous editor.
so,
folks with ostraconophobia would write LOBSTER on an ostracon, voting to ostracize the shellfish?
got it!
In the movie "Tom Horn" w/ Steve McQueen, there is a scene of an outdoor banquet. Someone with a large tub passes down the line and places a whole cooked lobster in front of each diner. Tom recoils from it and says "That is the biggest bug I have ever seen".
So what was the order of words and meanings?
1. Something like "ost" for bone: very ancient people were aware of animal bones and even human bones.
2. We're now making pottery that actually ends up hard enough to be useful. Resembles bone.
3. We've moved from eating animals on land to eating fish. (Maybe 40,000 years ago as opposed to more than 2 million years ago for eating meat). The main distinction is shelled vs. unshelled: having or not having something like exterior bone.
44-pound lobster
Probably not 44 pounds since:
Guinness World Record Holder
Weight: 44 lbs 6 oz (20.14 kg)
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Year Captured: 1977
I have long thought that "plate tectonics" should be called "ostracon tectonics".
Fake news; no phobia exhibited in this picture:
Denny Hamlin holds a celebratory lobster in Victory Lane after winning the Sylvania 300 yesterday in Loudon, N.H.
Yeah, they do look like big bugs. But that makes killing them easier.
Lobster phobia is one thing, but true courage was whown by the first person to eat a raw oyster. Probably without lemon or hot sauce, even.
Let’s go, Denny
Ostraconophobia means those people are unshellfish, eg altruistic.
So what is "fear of ostracism" in phobiaspeak?
" ... the vote was counted and, if unfavorable, the person was exiled for a period of ten years from the city ... "
I understand that these days, large numbers of people are voluntarily moving from the city.
I think it probably arises from the fact that many shellfish look like insects.
"I have a lobster phobia. I don't know why. I just don't like them," Hamlin stated. "I cannot eat dinner if someone beside me is eating lobster. I can't look at it. So as far as I'm concerned, they need to put it back in the water and let it live."
He'd be ostracized at a seafood restaurant.
If lobsters are really the problem, I suggest seeking therapy with Jordan Peterson.
Pottery vessels were/are used to trap octopus in Greece. Perhaps they were also used to trap lobster.
"I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas"
In Classical Athens, when the decision at hand was to banish or exile a certain member of society, citizen peers would cast their vote by writing the name of the person on the shard of pottery; the vote was counted and, if unfavorable, the person was exiled for a period of ten years from the city, thus giving rise to the term ostracism....
--------------
Q: would Socrates approve/wish for mail-in-voting / ballot-harvesting / stuffing undamaged 'ostra-pot'
The best thing I have ever read about lobsters is an essay titled "Consider the Lobster" by David Foster Wallace, originally
published in "Gourmet Magazine." It is worth reading. Here is a link to the essay:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=aGlnaHRlY2hoaWdoLm9yZ3xkbDIwMTQtd29ya3Nob3BzfGd4OjRkMjFjYWJjY2VhMWFmMmY
Until about 1840 in New England, lobsters were so plentiful that they were an inexpensive food for the poor and the institutionalized. They were not an upscale food. I don't enjoy eating whole lobsters, but I do like lobster rolls if they are
done right. I spend a lot of time in Maine visiting relatives, and the best lobster rolls I have ever had were at Red's Eats, a top
ten dive, in Wicassett, Maine. They usually contain about one pound of lobster meat. The current price is about $26.50 a roll.
It is best visited in the warm seasons.
I learned the etymology of ostracise long ago in one of my eclectic course-takings, what my faculty advisor condemned as "excursions into the irrelevant". Diggings in Athenian rubbish tips have revealed literally thousands of ostraka accumulated over decades of petty democratic bickering and character assassination plots. (Sound familiar?) Some of the most common are ballots from the trial of Themistocles, some of them grossly misspelled.
Themistocles was the highly competent politician, diplomat, and admiral who more than any other single individual saved Athens and the whole of Greece from the invasion of Xerxes (480-479 BC). His leadership after the war helped restore the ruined city and her people to prosperity. However, the great archon had the misfortune of having an arrogant manner. Consequently, he was exiled in favor of an amiable moron, much like our own highly competent Donald Trump was unseated by a gibbering fool. Political thinkers from Thucydides to Hobbes pointed to the ostracism of Themistocles as an argument against democracy as a sustainable form of government. The history of this country over the last few years makes one suspect they were correct.
Of the subject of misspelling, the conventional transliteration of ὄστρακον (potsherd) is spelt with a k, -- ostrakon (pl. ostraka). Perhaps this shows even the vaunted OED needs the occasional proofreading.
Until about 1840 in New England, lobsters were so plentiful that they were an inexpensive food for the poor and the institutionalized.
During colonial times, Massachusetts kept her miscreants and debtors aboard a prison hulk anchored in Boston Harbor. According to local lore, in about 1750 the hulk (a dismasted and unseaworthy ship used for other purposes than sailing) was the scene of a riot, the prisoners having become fed up with a diet of lobster and gruel morning, noon, and night.
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