HIERATIC

Hi′er‐at″ic (?), a. [[L. hieraticus, Gr. �; akin to ιερὅσ 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.).