different between vulgar vs demotic

English

Alternative forms

• (early modern English): vulgare

Etymology

Borrowed into Middle English from Latin vulg?ris, from volgus, vulgus (“mob; common folk”), from Proto-Indo-European *wl?k- (compare Welsh gwala (“plenty, sufficiency”), Ancient Greek ???? (halía, “assembly”) ????? (eilé?, “to compress”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (velik?, “great”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?v?l.??/
• (US) enPR: v?l?g?r, IPA^(key): /?v?l.??/

Adjective

vulgar (comparative more vulgar or vulgarer, superlative most vulgar or vulgarest)

1. Debased, uncouth, distasteful, obscene.
   • The construction worker made a vulgar suggestion to the girls walking down the street.
2. (classical sense) Having to do with ordinary, common people.
   • 1834-1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent.

     The mechanical process of multiplying books had brought the New Testament in the vulgar tongue within the reach of every class.

   • 1860, G. Syffarth, "A Remarkable Seal in Dr. Abbott's Museum at New York", Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, age 265

     Further, the same sacred name in other monuments precedes the vulgar name of King Takellothis, the sixth of the XXII. Dyn., as we have seen.

3. (especially taxonomy) Common, usual; of the typical kind.

   the vulgar bush brown, Bicyclus vulgaris

   • 1869, Richard Francis Burton, The Highlands of the Brazil, page 85:

     A vulture (V. aura), probably the Acabiry first described by Azara, is here called […] the hunter. It resembles in form the vulgar bird, but it flies high. The head is red, and the wings are black with silver lining, like the noble Bateleur of Africa.

Synonyms

• (obscene): inappropriate, obscene, debased, uncouth, offensive, ignoble, mean, profane
• (ordinary): common, ordinary, popular

Derived terms

• (obscene): vulgarity, vulgarian
• (ordinary): vulgar fraction, vulgate, Vulgate
• vulgar fraction
• Vulgar Latin
• Vulgar Era

Translations

Noun

vulgar (plural vulgars)

1. (classicism) A common, ordinary person.
   • 2016, Evan Gottlieb, Juliet Shields, Representing Place in British Literature and Culture, 1660-1830

     Popular antiquarian writings […] frequently focused on the regional vulgars' superstitious beliefs regarding the dead and their ongoing presence—such as popular funeral rites or the vulgars' fear of church yards.

2. (collective) The common people.
3. The vernacular tongue or common language of a country.

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Adjective

vulgar (masculine and feminine plural vulgars)

1. vulgar

Derived terms

• vulgarment

Related terms

• vulgaritat

Further reading

• “vulgar” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Galician

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Adjective

vulgar m or f (plural vulgares)

1. common to the people, vulgar
2. ordinary, undistinguished
3. popular, commonly understood, as opposed to scientific or technical
4. simple, unintelligent

Synonyms

• (ordinary): prosaico
• (popular): común, popular

Antonyms

• (popular): científico, técnico

Related terms

• vulgaridade
• vulgarismo
• vulgo

Further reading

• “vulgar” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /vu?.??a?/
• Hyphenation: vul?gar

Adjective

vulgar (plural vulgares, comparable)

1. common to the people, vulgar
2. ordinary, undistinguished

   Synonym: prosaico

3. popular, commonly understood, as opposed to scientific or technical

   Synonyms: comum, popular

4. simple, unintelligent

Antonyms

• (popular): científico, técnico

Related terms

• vulgaridade
• vulgarismo
• vulgo

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French vulgaire, Latin vulgaris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vul??ar/

Adjective

vulgar m or n (feminine singular vulgar?, masculine plural vulgari, feminine and neuter plural vulgare)

1. vulgar

Declension

Synonyms

• grosolan
• ordinar
• comun

Related terms

• vulg

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin vulg?ris.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bul??a?/, [bul???a?]

Adjective

vulgar (plural vulgares)

1. vulgar

Derived terms

Related terms

• vulgo
• vulgaridad

Further reading

• “vulgar” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.

English

Etymology

First attested in 1822, from Ancient Greek ????????? (d?motikós, “common”), from ??????? (d?mót?s, “commoner”), from ????? (dêmos, “the common people”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d?.?m?.t?k/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d?.m?.t?k/

Adjective

demotic (not comparable)

1. Of or for the common people.

   Synonyms: colloquial, informal, popular, vernacular

   Antonym: formal
2. Of, relating to, or written in the ancient Egyptian script that developed from Lower Egyptian hieratic writing starting from around 650 B.C.E. 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.

   Synonym: enchorial

   Coordinate term: abnormal hieratic

3. Of, relating to, or written in the form of modern vernacular Greek.

Derived terms

• demoticist

Related terms

• Demotic Greek
• demotist

Translations

Noun

demotic (plural demotics)

1. (linguistics) Language as spoken or written by the common people.
   • 2010, John C. Wells, accents map

     Note the intrusion into British demotic (“me and Cheryl were having”) of the valley-girl quotative be, like.

Translations

Further reading

• demotic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “demotic”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.