demotic

Meanings

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.

1. Language as spoken or written by the common people.

1. The demotic Egyptian script, used from c. 650 BCE to 452 CE.
2. The demotic Egyptian language, spoken from c. 650 BCE to 400 BCE.

Etymology

First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός (dēmotikós, “common”), from δημότης (dēmótēs, “commoner”), from δῆμος (dêmos, “the common people”).