Demotic

/dɪˈmɒt.ɪk/ · adjective

Meaning

Of or for the common people..

Definitions by Sense

1. Of or for the common people.
2. 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.
3. Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek.
4. (linguistics) Language as spoken or written by the common people.

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”.

demotic Greek

Near-synonym: vernacular

2010, John C. Wells, accents map Note the intrusion into British demotic (“me and Cheryl were having”) of the valley-girl quotative be, like.

Synonyms for demotic

Antonyms for demotic

Related Words

Word Forms

• demotics

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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