demotic

Meanings

Adjective

• Of or for the common people.
• Of, relating to, or written in the ancient Egyptian script that developed from Lower Egyptian hieratic writing starting from around 650 BC 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.
• Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek.

Noun

• Language as spoken or written by the common people.

Origin

• First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek δημοτικός ("common"), from δημότης, from δῆμος.