*Dates (beginning with Ancient Greek) from D.B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids 1997), 12.Katharevousa was set at a midpoint between Ancient Greek and the Modern Greek of the time. It stressed both a more ancient vocabulary and a simplified form of the classical grammar.
Part of its purpose was to mediate the struggle between the "archaists" favouring full reversion to archaic forms, and the "modernists". The name "Katharevousa" implies a pure form of Greek as it might hypothetically have evolved from ancient Greek without external influences.
The first known use of katharevousa is in a work by the Greek polymath Nikephoros Theotokis, in 1796.[1]
