demotic - Definitions from Dictionary.com

5 results for: demotic

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

de·mot·ic

Audio Help [di-mot-ik] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	of or pertaining to the ordinary, everyday, current form of a language; vernacular: a poet with a keen ear for demotic rhythms.

2.	of or pertaining to the common people; popular.

3.	of, pertaining to, or noting the simplified form of hieratic writing used in ancient Egypt between 700 b.c. and a.d. 500.

–noun

4.	demotic script.

5.	(initial capital letter) Also called Romaic. the Modern Greek vernacular (distinguished from Katharevusa).

[Origin: 1815–25; < Gk démotikós popular, plebeian, equiv. to démót(és) a plebeian (deriv. of dêmos; see demo-) + -ikos -ic

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
demotic

To learn more about demotic visit Britannica.com

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

de·mot·ic Audio Help (dĭ-mŏt'ĭk) Pronunciation Key
adj.

Of or relating to the common people; popular: demotic speech; demotic entertainments.
Of, relating to, or written in the simplified form of ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
Demotic Of or relating to a form of modern Greek based on colloquial use.

n. Demotic Greek.

[Greek dēmotikos, from dēmotēs, a commoner, from dēmos, people; see dā- in Indo-European roots.]

(Download Now or Buy the Book)

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
demotic

1822, from Gk. demotikos "of or for the common people," from demos "common people," originally "district," from PIE *da-mo- "division," from base *da- "to divide" (see tide). In contrast to hieratic. Originally of the simpler of two forms of ancient Egyptian writing; broader sense is from 1831; used of Greek since 1927.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

demotic
adjective
1.	of or written in or belonging to the form of modern Greek based on colloquial use
2.	of or for the common people; "demotic entertainments"; "demotic speech"; "a poet with a keen ear for demotic rhythms"
noun
1.	a simplified cursive form of the ancient hieratic script; "Demotic script was eventually replaced by Greek"
2.	the modern Greek vernacular [syn: Romaic]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Demotic

De*mot"ic\, a. [Gr. dhmotiko`s, fr. dh^mos the people: cf. F. d['e]motique.] Of or pertaining to the people; popular; common.

Demotic alphabet or character, a form of writing used in Egypt after six or seven centuries before Christ, for books, deeds, and other such writings; a simplified form of the hieratic character; -- called also epistolographic character, and enchorial character. See Enchorial.

Browse Nearby Entries: