hieroglyph vs hieroglyphic

hieroglyph

noun
  • Any obscure or baffling symbol. 

  • An element of an ideographic (hieroglyphic) writing system. 

verb
  • To represent by hieroglyphs. 

hieroglyphic

noun
  • Undecipherable handwriting or secret symbol. 

  • Any symbol used in this system; a hieroglyph. 

  • A writing system of ancient Egypt, Minoans, Maya and other civilizations, using pictorial symbols to represent individual sounds as a rebus 

adj
  • difficult to decipher 

  • of, relating to, or written with this system of symbols 

How often have the words hieroglyph and hieroglyphic occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )