Ancient Greek

Alternative forms

• δᾶμος ‎(dâmos) Doric

Noun

δῆμος • ‎(dêmos) m ‎(genitive δήμου); second declension

1. district, country, land
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 5.710

     πὰρ δέ οἱ ἄλλοι ναῖον Βοιωτοὶ μάλα πίονα δῆμον ἔχοντες

     and hard by him dwelt other Boeotians having a land exceeding rich

   1. the inhabitants of a district or land
   • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 3.50

     πατρί τε σῷ μέγα πῆμα πόληΐ τε παντί τε δήμῳ

     great pain upon your father, your city, and your people

2. the common people
   • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 5.66

     ἑσσούμενος δὲ ὁ Κλεισθένης τὸν δῆμον προσεταιρίζεται

     Cleisthenes was getting the worst of it and took the common people into his party.

   1. (rare) commoner
      • 800 BCE – 600 BCE, Homer, Iliad 12.213

        δῆμον ἐόντα

        being a commoner

3. free citizens, sovereign people
   • 467 BCE, Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes 1011

     δοκοῦντα καὶ δόξαντ᾽ ἀπαγγέλλειν με χρὴ δήμου προβούλοις τῆσδε Καδμείας πόλεως:

     It is my duty to announce the will and decrees of the council on behalf of the people of this our Cadmean city.

   1. popular government, democracy
      • 460 BCE – 420 BCE, Herodotus, Histories 3.82

        πάντων τῷ λόγῳ ἀρίστων ἐόντων, δήμου τε ἀρίστου καὶ ὀλιγαρχίης καὶ μουνάρχου

        all are at their best for the sake of argument, the best democracy and oligarchy and monarchy

   2. popular assembly
      • 380 BCE, Plato, The Republic 565.b

        ἀναγκάζονται δὴ οἶμαι ἀμύνεσθαι, λέγοντές τε ἐν τῷ δήμῳ καὶ πράττοντες ὅπῃ δύνανται

        [they] are compelled to defend themselves by speeches in the assembly and any action in their power

4. township, commune; deme
   • 64 BCE – 24 CE, Strabo, Geography 9.1.16

     Ἐλευσῖνά τε εἰπὼν ἕνα τῶν ἑκατὸν ἑβδομήκοντα δήμων

     after speaking of Eleusis, one of the hundred and seventy demes

5. name for a prostitute
   • 680 BCE – 645 BCE, Archilochus, Collected Works 184
6. faction in a circus

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• English: deme
• Greek: δήμος ‎(dímos)
• Latin: dēmos

References

• δῆμος in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• Bauer lexicon
• “G1218”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), volume I, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, page 325

Etymology 2

Noun

δῆμος • ‎(dêmos) m ‎(genitive δήμου); second declension

1. yellow serradella, Ornithopus compressus

Declension

Synonyms

• κᾰτᾰνάγκη ‎(katanánkē)

References

• δῆμος in Liddell & Scott (1940) A Greek–English Lexicon, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• δῆμος in Liddell & Scott (1889) An Intermediate Greek–English Lexicon, New York: Harper & Brothers
• «δῆμος» in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• «δῆμος» in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• «δῆμος» in the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (© 2006–2016)
• “G1218”, in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible, 1979
• Woodhouse, S. C. (1910) English-Greek Dictionary: A Vocabulary of the Attic Language, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited.
  • canton idem, page 111.
  • common idem, page 148.
  • commons idem, page 148.
  • county idem, page 178.
  • Demus idem, page 1008.
  • district idem, page 242.
  • parish idem, page 593.
  • people idem, page 604.
  • plebeian idem, page 620.
  • populace idem, page 626.
  • proletariat idem, page 653.
  • shire idem, page 766.