hieroglyphic

• hieroglyphick (obsolete)

First coined 1726, from French hiéroglyphique, from Latin hieroglyphicus, from Ancient Greek ἱερογλυφικός (hierogluphikós), from ἱερογλυφέω (hierogluphéō, “to represent hieroglyphically”), from ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy”) + γλύφω (glúphō, “to carve, to engrave, to cut out”)

• IPA^(key): /ˌhaɪɹəˈɡlɪfɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪfɪk

hieroglyphic (plural hieroglyphics)

1. (chiefly in the plural) A writing system of ancient Egypt, Minoans, Maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds as a rebus
2. Any symbol used in this system; a hieroglyph.
   • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], OCLC 21345056, page 44:

     I must say, that, at the coronation, there was little vestige left as possible "of the charms that pleased a king." "She looked," Lady Mary Wortley said, "like an Egyptian mummy, wrought with hieroglyphics of gold."

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     The hieroglyphics or symbols, however, were reversed, just as though they had been pressed on wax.

3. (by extension) Undecipherable handwriting or secret symbol.
   • 1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714:

     Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.

The use of this word in the plural, as well as its use to mean ‘a hieroglyph’, are commonly proscribed by Egyptologists; for example, James P. Allen writes, ‘Each sign in this system is a hieroglyph, and the system as a whole is called hieroglyphic (not “hieroglyphics”).’ Thus, while the use of ‘hieroglyphics’ is quite common in works written by laymen (and formerly in 19th-century academic works), it is rare in modern academic works written by Egyptologists.

hieroglyphic (comparative more hieroglyphic, superlative most hieroglyphic)

1. of, relating to, or written with this system of symbols

   hieroglyphic writing

   hieroglyphic obelisk

2. difficult to decipher