FromGreekκαθαρεύουσα(katharévousa), feminine ofκαθαρεύων(katharévon), present participle ofAncient Greekκαθαρεύω(kathareúō,“to be clean, pure”).
- (UK)IPA(key): /ˌkaθəˈɹɛvuːsə/
- (US)IPA(key): /ˌkɑθəˈɹɛvusɑ/,/ˌkɑθəˈɹɛvəsɑ/
- Hyphenation:Ka‧tha‧re‧vou‧sa
Katharevousa
- Alearned,archaising form ofModern Greek, based onClassical Greek and used for formal and official purposes; it was legally displaced as the official language of Greece in 1976 byDemotic Greek.
- Coordinate terms:Classical Greek,Demotic Greek,Ancient Greek,Koine,purist Greek
1994,Louis de Bernières,Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Minerva, published1995, page87:‘You read the poetry of Cavafy, I have taught you to speakKatharevousa and Italian.’
2019,Roderick Beaton,Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin, published2020, page345:A year later, after much deliberation and public discussion, an act of parliament established that demotic Greek was to replace the hybridkatharevousa as the official language of education – and therefore, in practice, in most walks of life (exceptions are the Church and law).
purist variant of Modern Greek
