365 New Words a Year [Merriam Webster] (Workman Publishing 7/30/7: demotic

demotic adj : common, popular

The M-W website lists three definitions for this word, of which 2 is the one above. The others are alluded to in the Did You Know section of the calendar page: "You may recognize the root of demotic from words like democracy and demography. The source of these words is the Greek . . . meaning 'people'. Demotic is often used of everyday forms of language (as opposed to literary or highbrow versions). It entered English in the early 180s and originally designated a form of ancient Egyptian cursive script that, by the fifth century B.C., had come into use everywhere in Egypt for business and literary purposes (in contrast to the more complex hieratic script retained by the clergy). Demotic has a newer specialized sense as well, referring to a form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech and that since 1976 has been the official language of Greece." The calendar page's example sentence talks about a movie that doesn't "have the same demotic appeal as an action-adventure flick." Rating 10/10 common denominators.