Not to be confused with prescription and other meanings of .

Proscription is, in current usage, a "decree of condemnation to death or banishment" (OED) and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in Ancient Rome, where it included public identification and official condemnation of declared enemies of the state. It has been used broadly since to describe similar governmental and political actions, with varying degrees of nuance, including the en masse suppression of ideologies and elimination of political rivals or personal enemies. In addition to its recurrences during the various phases of the Roman Republic, it has become a standard term to label:

• the suppression of Royalists after Oliver Cromwell's decisive defeat of Charles II at the Battle of Worcester in 1651 (see image)
• curbing of Western religion in early 18th-century China
• the banning of Highland dress following the Jacobite rising of 1745 in Scotland
• atrocities that occurred during the Reign of Terror (1793-1794) phase of the French Revolution
• the mass deportations of English and French workers from Russia in mid-19th century, with the onset of the Crimean War 
• in the 20th century, such things as the efforts of the Labour Party in England to prevent "Communist entryism" through blacklisting propagandizing persons and organisations
• the broad prohibitions of Jewish cultural institutions and activities in the Soviet Union after the birth of the state of Israel in 1948 and the onset of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War 
• the political violence that occurred in Argentina against Peronists after the exile of Juan Perón in 1955