demotic en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /dɪˈmɒt.ɪk/ (UK)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /dɪˈmɑ.tɪk/ (US)
Etymology
First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός (dēmotikós, “common”), from δημότης (dēmótēs, “commoner”), from δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people”).
Meanings
-
(not-comparable) Of or for the common people.
The conservative writer Marc Thiessen tried to depict Trump’s lurid festival as a sign of his demotic spirit, opening the White House to the sort of people who go to motocross rallies and monster truck shows.
2026 June 15, Michelle Goldberg, “The UFC 250 Was a Garish Spectacle of American Decline”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:Anything grandiose or historically based tends to sound flat and banal when it reaches English, partly because translators get stuck between contradictory imperatives: juggling fidelity to the original sense with what is vocally viable, they tend to resort to a genteel fustian which lacks either poetic resonance or demotic realism, adding to a sense of artificiality rather than enhancing credibility.
2014 March 1, Rupert Christiansen, “English translations rarely sing”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review), page R19:demotic writing style
An enthusiastic literary critical response ranged from Graham Greene, who admired Byron’s demotic, conversational brilliance, to the rivalrous Evelyn Waugh, who had to concede the book’s high spirits, via the Sunday Times, which linked Byron to his namesake (no relation) and declared him “the last and finest fruit of the insolent humanism of the 18th century”.
2016 October 31, Robert McCrum, “The 100 best nonfiction books: No 40 – The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron (1937)”, in The Guardian:
- (not-comparable) 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.
-
(not-comparable) Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek.
demotic Greek
Antonyms
Coordinates
democratic · abnormal hieratic
Deriveds
Relateds
Synonyms
vernacular · enchorial · popular · colloquial · informal
Translations (33)
hu népies (of or for the common people) · ru наро́дный (of or for the common people) · ar شَعْبِيّ (of or for the common people) · ga coiteann (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · el κοινός (of or for the common people) · ru димоти́ческий (of modern vernacular Greek) · fi demoottinen (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · ga coiteann (of modern vernacular Greek) · fr démotique (of modern vernacular Greek) · fi demootinen (of modern vernacular Greek) · sv demotisk (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · es demótico (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · el δημώδης (of modern vernacular Greek) · pl demotyczny (of or for the common people) · bg на простолюдието (of or for the common people) · pl demotyczny (of modern vernacular Greek) · fi rahvaanomainen (of or for the common people) · es demótico (of modern vernacular Greek) · ru простонаро́дный (of or for the common people) · ro demotic (of or for the common people) · fr démotique (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · fi demoottinen (of or for the common people) · pl demotyczny (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · cs démotický (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · ga coiteann (of or for the common people) · ru демоти́ческий (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · ar دَارِج (of or for the common people) · hu népi (of or for the common people) · sv demotisk (of or for the common people) · fi kansanomainen (of or for the common people) · el δημοτικός (of modern vernacular Greek) · ca demòtic (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script) · de demotisch (of the cursive ancient Egyptian script)