From: Toto <toto@sk.sympatico.ca>Wordsmith <wsmith@wordsmith.org>
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 14:20:47 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: [Fwd: A.Word.A.Day--hieroglyphic]A.Word.A.Day--hieroglyphic
Message-ID: <35569417.4972@sk.sympatico.ca>
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hieroglyphic (hy-uhr-o-GLIF-ik, hy-ruh-)    also hieroglyphical adjective

   1. Of, relating to, or being a system of writing, such as that of ancient
      Egypt, in which pictorial symbols are used to represent meaning or
      sounds or a combination of meaning and sound. Written with such
      symbols.

   2. Difficult to read or decipher.

hieroglyphic noun

   1. A hieroglyph. Often hieroglyphics (used with a sing. or pl. verb.
      Hieroglyphic writing, especially that of the ancient Egyptians).

   2. Something, such as illegible or undecipherable writing, that is felt
      to resemble a hieroglyph.

[French hieroglyphique, from Late Latin hieroglyphicus, from Greek
hierogluphikos : hieros, holy. See eis-. + gluphe, carving (from gluphein,
to carve.]
 
   "The fascination with hieroglyphics, with emblems and impresas, or
   `pictures without words,' as Ernst Robert Curtius tells us, has
    continually occupied the minds of Western humanists since the beginning
    of the fifteenth century. "
   Zhang Longxi, What is 'wen' and why is it made so terribly strange?.,
   Vol. 23, College Literature, 02-01-1996, pp 15(21). 
 
This week's theme: words about symbols.
 
...........................................................................
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. 
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
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