hieratic · adj — of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt. It carries an Arena rating of 1621, earned across 50 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, hieratic ranks #1,380 of 17,146 for Most Storied Words, #2,600 of 17,195 for Most Exacting Words, #3,187 of 17,129 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,911 of 17,187 for Most Malleable Words.
hieratic is pronounced /ˌhaɪ(ə)ˈɹætɪk/.
Why “hieratic” is a great word
HIERATIC — [Adjective] Pertaining to priests or sacred rites, or designating the cursive script of ancient Egypt used for religious and administrative texts on papyrus. From Latin hieraticus, from Ancient Greek ἱερατικός (hieratikós, "priestly"), from ἱερατεία (hierateía, "priesthood"), from ἱερεύς (hiereús, "priest"), from ἱερός (hierós, "sacred"); the application to the Egyptian script originates with the Greek phrase γράμματα ἱερατικά (grámmata hieratiká, "priestly writing") used by Saint Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century AD. Unlike "hieroglyphic," which denotes the formal, monumental carvings, or "secular," which inhabits the profane world, hieratic is the sacred in motion—the swift, inky hand of a scribe copying a funerary text, the measured cadence of a liturgy behind temple walls, and the silent authority of forms preserved from a world apart. It is the shape reverence takes when it must also keep accounts.
❧ Essay by Lexicurio’s AI · definition, etymology & citations from published sources
Etymology
From Latin hieraticus, from Ancient Greek ἱερατικός (hieratikós), from ἱερατεία (hierateía, “priesthood”), from ἱερατεύω (hierateúō, “be a priest”), from ἱερεύς (hiereús, “priest”), from ἱερός (hierós, “sacred”). Use pertaining to the Egyptian writing system originates with the Greek phrase γράμματα ἱερατικά (grámmata hieratiká, literally “priestly writing”), which was first used by Saint Clement of Alexandria in the 2nd century AD, as at that time hieratic was used only for religious texts, as had been the case for the previous thousand years.
adj
- Of or pertaining to priests or other religious authorities, especially pharaonic priests of Ancient Egypt.e.g.“In sculpture and in the drama, in Aristophanic farce and in hieratic rituals, in pictorial art and in the stream of literature, the phallus is transcendent.” — 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page iii:
- Of or pertaining to the cursive writing system that developed alongside the hieroglyphic system as its ordinary handwritten counterpart.e.g.“The papyrus was written in hieratic, a cursive form of hieroglyphics.” — 2021, Claire Cock-Starkey, Hyphens & Hashtags, Bodleian Library, page 117:
- Extremely stylized, restrained or formal; adhering to fixed types or methods; severe in emotional import.e.g.“Some of the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved.”
noun
- A writing system used in pharaonic Egypt that was developed alongside the hieroglyphic system, primarily written in ink with a reed brush on papyrus, allowing scribes to write quickly without resorting to the time consuming hieroglyphs.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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