δῆμος

From Proto-Hellenic *dā́mos, from Proto-Indo-European *deh₂mos (“people”) (perhaps originally a feminine), from *deh₂- (“to divide”), whence also δαίομαι (daíomai), compare Mycenaean Greek 𐀅𐀗 (da-mo). The original meaning was thus "part".

• δᾶμος (dâmos) — Doric

δῆμος • (dêmos) m (genitive δήμου); second declension (Epic, Attic, Ionic, Koine)

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

     πὰρ δέ οἱ ἄλλοι ναῖον Βοιωτοὶ μάλα πίονα δῆμον ἔχοντες

     pàr dé hoi álloi naîon Boiōtoì mála píona dêmon ékhontes

     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

     patrí te sôi méga pêma pólēḯ te pantí te dḗmōi

     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

     hessoúmenos dè ho Kleisthénēs tòn dêmon prosetairízetai

     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

        dêmon eónta

        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:

     dokoûnta kaì dóxant’ apangéllein me khrḕ dḗmou proboúlois têsde Kadmeías póleōs:

     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

        pántōn tôi lógōi arístōn eóntōn, dḗmou te arístou kaì oligarkhíēs kaì mounárkhou

        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 565b:

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

        anankázontai dḕ oîmai amúnesthai, légontés te en tôi dḗmōi kaì práttontes hópēi dúnantai

        [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

     Eleusîná te eipṑn héna tôn hekatòn hebdomḗkonta dḗmōn

     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

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

• “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 the Diccionario Griego–Español en línea (2006–2024)
• δῆμος in Bailly, Anatole (1935) Le Grand Bailly: Dictionnaire grec-français, Paris: Hachette
• 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 149.
  • county idem, page 178.
  • demus idem, page 210.
  • 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.
• δῆμος in Cunliffe, Richard J. (1924) A Lexicon of the Homeric Dialect: Expanded Edition, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1963
• G1218 in Strong, James (1979) Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance to the Bible
• Bauer, Walter et al. (2001) A Greek–English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third edition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press
• 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, →ISBN, page 325

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

1. yellow serradella, Ornithopus compressus

• κᾰτᾰνάγκη (katanánkē)