Defn: Consecrated to sacred uses; sacerdotal; pertaining to priests. Hieratic character, a mode of ancient Egyptian writing; a modified form of hieroglyphics, tending toward a cursive hand and formerly supposed to be the sacerdotal character, as the demotic was supposed to be that of the people. It was a false notion of the Greeks that of the three kinds of writing used by the Egyptians, two — for that reason called hieroglyphic and hieratic — were employed only for sacred, while the third, the demotic, was employed for secular, purposes. No such distinction is discoverable on the more ancient Egyptian monuments; bur we retain the old names founded on misapprehension. W. H. Ward (Johnson's Cyc.).
HIEROCRACY
Hi`er*oc"ra*cy, n. Etym: [Gr.
Defn: Government by ecclesiastics; a hierarchy. Jefferson.
HIEROGLYPH; HIEROGLYPHIC
Hi"er*o*glyph, Hi`er*o*glyph"ic, n. Etym: [Cf. F. hiéroglyphe. See
Hieroglyphic, a.]
1. A sacred character; a character in picture writing, as of the ancient Egyptians, Mexicans, etc. Specifically, in the plural, the picture writing of the ancient Egyptian priests. It is made up of three, or, as some say, four classes of characters: first, the hieroglyphic proper, or figurative, in which the representation of the object conveys the idea of the object itself; second, the ideographic, consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, the phonetic, consisting of symbols employed as syllables of a word, or as letters of the alphabet, having a certain sound, as a hawk represented the vowel a.
2. Any character or figure which has, or is supposed to have, a hidden or mysterious significance; hence, any unintelligible or illegible character or mark. [Colloq.]
HIEROGLYPHIC; HIEROGLYPHICAL
Hi`er*o*glyph"ic, Hi`er*o*glyph"ic*al, a. Etym: [L. hieroglyphicus,
Gr. hiéroglyphique.]
1. Emblematic; expressive of some meaning by characters, pictures, or figures; as, hieroglyphic writing; a hieroglyphic obelisk. Pages no better than blanks to common minds, to his, hieroglyphical of wisest secrets. Prof. Wilson.
2. Resembling hieroglyphics; not decipherable. "An hieroglyphical scrawl." Sir W. Scott.
HIEROGLYPHICALLY
Hi`er*o*glyph`ic*ally, adv.