Politics & SocietyGreek → English
Demos
/ˈdiːmɒs/noun
The whole body of citizens in a state, considered as the source of political authority.
The Greek roots
δῆμος
dêmos
people, village district
Literally: “the people of a district”
Follow a root:δῆμος10 words
The story of the word
Before it meant the people, δῆμος meant a patch of land and whoever lived on it. Cleisthenes made that literal in 508 BC by cutting Attica into around 140 demes and registering every citizen by his deme instead of his father's clan, which is how a word for a parish came to carry the sovereign body. English writers reach for demos mainly in one argument, the one about whether a union of states can have a single people at all.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
democracydemagoguedemographyepidemicendemic
In a sentence
A parliament can be elected without a demos ever feeling that it belongs to them.
He kept insisting there was no European demos, only European voters.