Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A picture or symbol used in hieroglyphic writing.
- noun Something that suggests a hieroglyph.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To write in hieroglyphs; represent by means of hieroglyphs.
- noun The figure of any object, especially a familiar object, as an animal, tree, weapon, staff, etc., standing for a word, or a syllable, or a part of a syllable, or a single sound; a figure representing an idea; and intended to convey a meaning, thus forming part of a mode of written communication.
- noun Any figure, character, or mark having or supposed to have a mysterious or enigmatical significance.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A sacred character; a character used 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, theideographic , consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, thephonetic , 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. - noun colloq. Any character or figure which has, or is supposed to have, a hidden or mysterious significance; hence, any unintelligible or illegible character or mark.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun An element of an
ideographic (hieroglyphic )writing system .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a writing system using picture symbols; used in ancient Egypt
- noun writing that resembles hieroglyphics (usually by being illegible)
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In the same way this snake with the god's head is also found in the Codex Cortesianus, page 10, middle, a passage which is rendered notable also by the fact that in the writing above the picture there is expressly found as a second sign the name hieroglyph of the god.
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The hieroglyph is a symbol, denoting something without letters or syllables; as, pictures of a bee stand for king.
Egyptian Literature Comprising Egyptian tales, hymns, litanies, invocations, the Book of the Dead, and cuneiform writings Epiphanius Wilson 1880
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Ere long, through his influence, this form of writing will supersede wholly the hieroglyph, which is cumbersome and difficult to be understood, save by a native-born Egyptian; yet I have commenced the study of it, and can read already the cartouch of Mitres, on his obelisk over against the portico of my residence.
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Thus, at Copan, wherever the same kind of hieroglyph is to be represented, it will be found that the human face or other object employed is almost identically the same in expression and character, wherever it is found.
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This is proved by the shape of the object held in the hand in the sign and the hieroglyph which is the determinative in writing for all ideas of violence or brute force, comes down to us from a time when the principal weapon was the club, or a bone serving as a club.
History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12) M. L. McClure 1881
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I gave this primitive kind of hieroglyph to my interrogator, who, after inspecting it gravely, handed it to his next neighbour, and it thus passed round the group.
The Coming Race Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838
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And is there a name for that final hieroglyph you sent me (Dear Mr. Phillips, it is a grammatical determinative called the issuing penis)?
Secrets of the Crypt - Arthur Phillips talks about how he came to write The Egyptologist 2010
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Matthew Barney is making his first appearance in a New York gallery in five years with 12 drawings and four sculptures—one resembling an Egyptian hieroglyph the mold was made from the melted undercarriage of a 1967 Chrysler Imperial.
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Anatomizing a temple, though, like interpreting a hieroglyph, risks missing the unanalyzable spirit of the thing, its beautiful and hazardous play in a time we can never know.
Richard Bangs: Quest for the Lord of the Nile, Part III Richard Bangs 2011
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So, we are left with an inscription “near” the pyramid, a fake hieroglyph and a two and a half thousand year old text based upon hearsay.
sionnach commented on the word hieroglyph
Write your name in hieroglyphs
April 26, 2009