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Webster 1913 Edition

Hieratic

Hiˊer-at′ic

,
Adj.
[L.
hieraticus
, Gr.
ἱερατικός
; akin to
ἱερόσ
sacred: cf. F.
hiératique
.]
Consecrated to sacred uses; sacerdotal; pertaining to priests.
Hieratic character
,
a mode of ancient Egyptian writing; a modified form of hieroglyphics, tending toward a cursive hand and formerly supposed to be the sacerdotal character, as the demotic was supposed to be that of the people.
It was a false notion of the Greeks that of the three kinds of writing used by the Egyptians, two – for that reason called hieroglyphic and
hieratic
– were employed only for sacred, while the third, the demotic, was employed for secular, purposes. No such distinction is discoverable on the more ancient Egyptian monuments; bur we retain the old names founded on misapprehension.
W. H. Ward (Johnson’s Cyc.).

Definition 2024

hieratic

hieratic

English

Adjective

hieratic ‎(not comparable)

  1. of or pertaining to priests, especially pharaonic priests of ancient Egypt; sacerdotal.
  2. of or pertaining to the cursive writing system developed by ancient Egyptian priests alongside the hieroglyphic system.
  3. (art) extremely stylized, restrained or formal; adhering to fixed types or methods; severe in emotional import.
    Some of the more hieratic sculptures leave the viewer curiously unmoved.

Synonyms

Translations

Noun

hieratic ‎(plural hieratics)

  1. 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.

Etymology

Latin hieraticus, from Ancient Greek ἱερατικός ‎(hieratikós), from ἱερατεία ‎(hierateía, “priesthood”), from ἱερᾶτεύω ‎(hierâteúō, “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 (grammata hieratika; 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.

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