a. and sb. [A bad adaptation of Gr. κῡριολογικ-ός (of which the normal Eng. repr. is cyriologic) ‘speaking literally’ (f. κύριος regular, proper, etc. + λόγος speech, -λογια speaking), applied by Clemens Alexandrinus to hieroglyphics consisting of simple pictures, as opposed το συμβολικός symbolic.]
A. adj. Of or pertaining to that form of hieroglyphic writing in which objects are represented by pictures, and not by symbolic characters.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. I. xi. 64. The last and most perfect [mode of discourse and writing] is Hieroglyphic, whereof one is Curiologic, the other Symbolic.
1760. Antiq., in Ann. Reg., 156/2. The proper or curiologic character expressed the sun by a figure representing that luminary.
1816. J. Gilchrist, Philos. Etym., 27. The kind of hieroglyphics which the Egyptians very properly named Curiologic.
B. sb. Representation by picture-writing.
1816. J. Gilchrist, Philos. Etym., 33. Men were led on step by step from hieroglyphics or picture-writing, to curiologics, an abridged form of the former.
1864. R. F. Burton, Dahome, I. 206. In this land the umbrella is a rude kind of curiologics, faintly resembling European blazonry.
So Curiological a. = prec., Curiologically adv. Curiology nonce-wd., representation by curiologic symbols.
1740. Warburton, Div. Legat., IV. iv. iii. Hieroglyphics were written curiologically and symbolically.
1814. Edin. Rev., Nov., 147. Those hieroglyphics in which part of a material object is put for the whole are called curiological.
1816. J. Gilchrist, Philos. Etym., 32. The same system of curiology must have prevailed at a very early period.
1862. H. Spencer, First Princ. (1870), 349. The kuriological or imitative [form].
