Which version of Greek is the word "democracy" derived from?

May 30, 2022 1:49 AM

I am looking to translate the word "sound" (as in "logically sound") into the same version of Greek that the word "democracy" is derived from. I tried several ancient Greek dictionaries however none of them seem to be the one I am looking for based on trying to search for the word "people" and seeing if the result is "δεμοσ" (the search results keep coming up with "αγησίλαος" or "ἀγορή" however nothing at all resembling "δεμοσ").
posted by defmute to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

The OED says the first part of the word comes from the ancient Greek δῆμος, meaning 'the commons', 'the people'.
posted by misteraitch at 2:52 AM on May 30, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Attic Greek is the dialect that is otherwise known as classical Greek, if that helps to find the right dictionary. You want to be looking for δημος, though, rather than δεμος (an eta rather than an epsilon). My ancient Greek is very rusty but ὑγιής (sound, healthy, whole) is the first adjective that comes to mind.
posted by greycap at 2:57 AM on May 30, 2022 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you for the responses, misteraitch and greycap. It seems I know what I need to move forward with this endeavor.
posted by defmute at 3:45 AM on May 30, 2022

Just to point something else out from greycap's correct answer, the "ς" and "σ" are the same letter, the sigma. In Attic Greek, the former is how it appears at the end of a word.
posted by praemunire at 10:49 AM on May 30, 2022 [3 favorites]