Etymograph

English

demos

Demos comes from Ancient Greek δῆμος ‘ordinary citizens, common people from a…’, from Proto-Indo-European *déh₂mos ‘part, division’, and ultimately from *deh₂- ‘to share, divide’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deh₂-1‘to share, divide’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*déh₂mos1‘part, division’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*dā́mos1reconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEδῆμος2dêmos‘ordinary citizens, common people from a district, in a city-state’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2007demos2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Ancient Greek δῆμος
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English demos
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Tim Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory: “When the demos took charge, law and order inevitably…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*deh₂-Wiktionary, Ancient Greek δῆμος‘to share, divide’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*déh₂mosWiktionary, Ancient Greek δῆμος‘part, division’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Hellenicc. 2200–1600 BCE*dā́mosWiktionary, Ancient Greek δῆμοςreconstructed
  4. Ancient Greekc. 800–300 BCEδῆμοςWiktionary, English demosdêmos‘ordinary citizens, common people from a district, in a city-state’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2007demosWiktionary, English demos. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2007, Tim Blanning, The Pursuit of Glory: “When the demos took charge, law and order inevitably…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- ‘to share, divide’

tattered, teem, 21 more

through Ancient Greek δῆμος ‘ordinary citizens, common people from a…’

democratic, academic, democracy, democrat, pandemic, endemic, demography, demiurge, demotic, 27 more

Today it means

noun An ancient subdivision of Attica; (now also) a Greek municipality, an administrative area covering a city or several villages together.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “demos”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Ancient Greek δῆμος. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *deh₂- / demos

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