Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Popular; pertaining to the common people: specifically applied to a certain mode of writing used in Egypt for epistolary and business purposes from about the seventh century b. c., as distinguished from the hieratic and hieroglyphic. Also called enchorial.
  • Pertaining to a people developed beyond the tribal stage and including individuals of various kindreds or nationalities.
  • Social.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the people; popular; common.
  • adjective 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or for the common people.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or written in the vulgar form of ancient Egyptian hieratic writing.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek.
  • noun linguistics Language as spoken by the common people.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a simplified cursive form of the ancient hieratic script
  • adjective of or written in or belonging to the form of modern Greek based on colloquial use
  • noun the modern Greek vernacular
  • adjective of or for the common people

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός (demotikos, "common"), from δημότης (demotes, "commoner"), from δῆμος (demos, "the common people").

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Examples

Comments

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  • pertaining to the common people

    October 9, 2007

  • Also a language.

    October 9, 2007