\Hi`er*at"ic\, a. [L. hieraticus, Gr. ?; akin to
"iero`s sacred: cf. F. hi['e]ratique.]
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.).