caddichus means In ancient Sparta, a deep basin used in a form of voting or election, particularly for membership in common messes (syssitia). Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 75 out of 100.
Why this word is great
CADDICHUS — [Noun] A deep clay vessel used in ancient Sparta for voting on admission to the syssitia (common mess-halls), or the man thereby rejected from this essential fellowship. From Ancient Greek κάδδιχος (káddikhos, "a vessel used in voting"). Unlike a "ballot box"—a neutral, administrative receptacle—or "ostracism"—a formal Athenian exile for political threat—the caddichus was an instrument of intimate social calibration, determining not banishment from the city but from a fraternity of equals. It is the coarse pottery lip cool against the voter's palm, the muffled clatter of a disapproving pebble dropped within, and the silent, solitary walk home of a man denied his share of black broth and firelight—a stark lesson that society is often defined not by who it welcomes, but by the precise, hollow sound of who it rejects.
noun
- In ancient Sparta, a deep basin used in a form of voting or election, particularly for membership in common messes (syssitia).“Each man in the company took a little ball of soft bread, which they were to throw into a deep basin, which a waiter carried round upon his head; those that liked the person to be chosen dropped their ball into the basin without altering its figure, and those who disliked him pressed it between their fingers, and made it flat; and this signified as much as a negative voice. And if there were but o”
- A person rejected from membership in a Spartan common mess through the voting process that used such a basin.“The basin was called caddichus, and the rejected candidate had a name thence derived.”