hieroglyph

hieroglyph

English

Egyptian hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period.

Etymology

First attested around 1598, a back-formation from hieroglyphic (1580s), from Middle French hiéroglyphique, from Late Latin hieroglyphicus, from Ancient Greek ἱερογλυφικός (hierogluphikós) (Plutarch τά ἱερογλυφικά [γράμματα] "hieroglyphic [writing]), ἱερόγλυφος (hierógluphos, “carver of hieroglyphs”) (Ptolemy), a compound of ἱερός (hierós, “sacred, holy”) and γλυφή (gluphḗ, “carved work”), a calque of Egyptian mdw nṯr (“the god’s word”), .[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhaɪɹəˌɡlɪf/, /ˈhaɪɹoʊˌɡlɪf/

• Audio (UK)

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Noun

hieroglyph (plural hieroglyphs)

1. An element of an ideographic (hieroglyphic) writing system.
2. (informal) Any obscure or baffling symbol.

Derived terms

• hieroglyphic

Translations

element of ideographic writing system

Afrikaans: hiëroglief Albanian: hieroglif (sq) m Arabic: هِيرُوغْلِيفِيَّة‎ f (hiroḡlifiyya) Armenian: հիերոգլիֆ (hy) (hieroglif) Asturian: xeroglíficu m Azerbaijani: heroqlif (az) Belarusian: іеро́гліф m (ijeróhlif), геро́гліф m (hjeróhlif) (taraškievica) Bengali: হায়ারোগ্লিফ (hayarogliphô) Bulgarian: йерогли́ф (bg) m (jeroglíf) Burmese: အရုပ်စာ (my) (a.rupca) Catalan: jeroglífic (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 象形文字 (zh) (xiàngxíng wénzì), 圖畫文字／图画文字 (túhuà wénzì) Coptic: Sahidic: ⲥϩⲁⲓ ⲛ̅ⲥⲁϩ ⲡⲣⲁⲛ̅ϣ̅ m (shai n̅sah pran̅š̅) Czech: hieroglyf (cs) m Danish: hieroglyf c Dutch: hiëroglief (nl) c Esperanto: hieroglifo Estonian: hieroglüüf Finnish: hieroglyfi (fi) French: hiéroglyphe (fr) m Galician: xeróglifo m, xeroglífico m Georgian: იეროგლიფი (ieroglipi) German: Hieroglyphe (de) f Greek: ιερογλυφικός (el) m (ieroglyfikós) Ancient Greek: (please verify) χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr) Hawaiian: lalinoka Hebrew: הִירוֹגְלִיף‎ (he) m Hindi: हीयेरोग्लिफ़ (hīyeroglif) Hungarian: hieroglifa (hu) Indonesian: hieroglif (id) Irish: iairiglif f Italian: geroglifico (it) m Japanese: 象形文字 (ja) (しょうけいもじ, shōkei moji), ヒエログリフ (hierogurifu), ハイエログリフ (haierogurifu), 聖刻 (seikoku) Kazakh: иероглиф (ieroglif) Khmer: វត្ថុលេខនា (vŏətthoʼ leikhaʼnaa) Korean: 상형문자 (ko) (sanghyeongmunja), 히에로글리프 (hierogeullipeu) Kyrgyz: иероглиф (iyeroglif) Latvian: hieroglifs m Lithuanian: hieroglifas m Macedonian: хиероглиф m (hieroglif) Malay: hieroglif Norwegian: Bokmål: hieroglyf (no) m Occitan: ieroglif (oc) m Persian: هیروگلیف‎ (fa) (hiroglif) Polish: hieroglif (pl) m Portuguese: hieróglifo (pt) Romanian: hieroglifă (ro) f Russian: иеро́глиф (ru) m (ijeróglif) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: хијероглиф m Roman: hijeroglif m Slovak: hieroglyf (sk) m Slovene: hieroglif (sl) m Spanish: jeroglífico m Swedish: hieroglyf (sv) c Tagalog: heroglipiko Tajik: иероглиф (iyeroglif) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: hiyeroglif (tr) Turkmen: iýeroglif Ukrainian: ієро́гліф m (ijeróhlif) Uzbek: iyeroglif (uz) Vietnamese: chữ tượng hình

Verb

hieroglyph (third-person singular simple present hieroglyphs, present participle hieroglyphing, simple past and past participle hieroglyphed)

1. To represent by hieroglyphs.

References

1. James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 2, 177.