demotic
UK /dɪˈmɒt.ɪk/ · US /dɪˈmɑ.tɪk/ adjective, noun, proper noun
Forms demotics
- adjective Of or for the common people. “demotic writing style”
- adjective Of, relating to, or written in the ancient Egyptian script that developed from Lower Egyptian hieratic writing starting from around 650 BCE and was chiefly used to write the Demotic phase of the Egyptian language, with simplified and cursive characters that no longer corresponded directly to their hieroglyphic precursors.
- adjective Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek. “demotic Greek”
- noun (linguistics) Language as spoken or written by the common people.
- proper noun The demotic Egyptian script, used from c. 650 BCE to 452 CE.
- proper noun (linguistics) The demotic Egyptian language, spoken from c. 650 BCE to 400 BCE.
Synonyms
colloquial informal popular vernacular enchorial Demotic script Romaic
Antonyms
Etymology
First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός (dēmotikós, “common”), from δημότης (dēmótēs, “commoner”), from δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people”).
Webster’s 1913
- adjective 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.
Etymology [Gr. démotique.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “demotic”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details