HIERATICS
Noun
hieratics
plural of hieratic
Anagrams
• achirites, charities
Source: Wiktionary
HIERATIC
Hi`er*at"ic, a. Etym: [L. hieraticus, Gr. hiératique.]
Definition: 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.).
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition