Definition of "demotic" [de•mot•ic]

• Of or relating to the common people; popular: demotic speech; demotic entertainments. (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. (adjective)
• Demotic Greek. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Depictions of women in demotic song largely reflected the harshness of rural life and the specific predicament of women within its social and economic structure."
• "Perhaps the richest insights into the predominantly rural social environment of pre-revolutionary Greece are contained in demotic verse, much of which was composed, sung, and transmitted to subsequent generations by women."
• "Recurrent scenarios in demotic songs convey the repressive behavioural codes governing gender relations, the trauma of forced/arranged marriages, as well as the abduction of women by obsessed admirers."