zodiograph

English

Etymology

Ancient Greek ζῴδιον (zṓidion, “little animal”) + γράφω (gráphō, “to write”)

Noun

zodiograph (plural zodiographs)

1. A pictograph or ideogram that is used as the standard representation of a specific word.
   • 1994, William G. Boltz, The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System:

     That these kinds of elaborate zodiographs were not used to any extent, as far as we know, in the developmental stages of any writing system is due, we suspect, to the sub fades operation of a kind of "efficiency principle."

   • 1999, Michael Loewe, Edward L. Shaughnessy, The Cambridge History of Ancient China:

     The process of shifting from a pictograph to a zodoiograph is the process of acquiring a pronunciation. This process we call "phoneticization," and it is at this point that pictographs, or any other kind of graphs, turn into writing.

   • 2012, Feng Li, David Prager Branner, Writing and Literacy in Early China, page 27:

     Short of pointing to the corresponding khipu cartouche, an ideograph for “corn-planting month,” say, would have to be named to be spoken of, and all that is required to produce a zodiograph is for the spoken word to stick to the conventional graphic representation.