The first known use of term katharevousa is in a work by the Greek polymath Nikephoros Theotokis in 1796.1

Katharevousa was widely used in public documents and whatever was conceived as work of formal activity by Greek scholars. In modern Greek colloquial connotation the word katharevousa has simply come to mean "formal language".

In later years Katharevousa was used for official and formal purposes (such as politics letters official documents and newscasting) while Dimotiki () 'demotic' or popular Greek was the daily language. This created a diglossic situation whereby most of the Greek population was excluded from the public sphere and advancement in education unless they conformed to Katharevousa. In 1976 Dimotiki was made the official language and by the end of the 20th century full Katharevousa in its earlier form had become obsolete. However many grammatical and syntactical rules that Katharevousa had adopted and much vocabulary from the Katharevousa strand have come into contact with Dimotiki during the two centuries of its existence so that the project's emphasis has made an observable contribution to the language as it is used today.2 One may suggest that the Modern Greek of today is no longer the Dimotiki of old but rather set midway between it and the traditional Katharevousa as stressed in the 19th century with the continuing influence of Koine Greek. Amongst Katharevousa's later contributions is the promotion of classically based compounds to describe items and concepts that did not exist in earlier times such as "newspaper" "police" "automobile" "airplane" "television" and much else rather than borrowing words directly from other languages. See also Demotic Greek Diglossia Greek diacritics Greek language question Greek orthography Linguistic purism References The Phenomenon of Diglossia: Language and National Identity interview with Peter Mackridge www.translexis.demon.co.uk