the.com/hieroglyph

means A character from the formal picture-writing system of ancient Egypt, where images stood for sounds, words, or ideas.

from From Greek 'hieroglyphikos,' stitched together from 'hieros' (sacred) and 'glyphein' (to carve). Greek visitors to Egypt saw these symbols chiseled into temple walls by priests and assumed they were sacred carvings reserved for religious mysteries — hence 'holy carvings.' The term stuck even after scholars realized hieroglyphs were often used for ordinary administrative and funerary texts too, not just divine secrets.