Qui appartient ŕ l'hiéroglyphe. Caractère hiéroglyphique
ETYM Latin hieroglyphicus, Greek; ieros sacred + glyfein to carve: cf. French hiéroglyphique.
1. Resembling hieroglyphic writing; SYN. hieroglyphical.
2. Written in or belonging to a writing system using pictorial symbols; SYN. hieroglyphical.<br />
Egyptian writing system of the mid-4th millennium BC–3rd century AD, which combines picture signs with those indicating letters. The direction of writing is normally from right to left, the signs facing the beginning of the line. It was deciphered 1822 by the French Egyptologist J F Champollion (1790–1832) with the aid of the Rosetta Stone, which has the same inscription carved in hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Hieroglyphics were replaced for everyday use by cursive writing from about 700 BC onward.