demotic
/dɪˈmɑ.tɪk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.02 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of or for the common people.
adj
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.
adj
Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek.
name
The demotic Egyptian language, spoken from c. 650 BCE to 400 BCE.
Example Sentences
- "demotic writing style"
- "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."
- "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”."
- "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."
- "demotic Greek"
- "Near-synonym: vernacular"
Etymology
First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός (dēmotikós, “common”), from δημότης (dēmótēs, “commoner”), from δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: δημοτικός
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /dɪˈmɑ.tɪk/
- British English: /dɪˈmɒt.ɪk/