zodiograph

plural zodiographs

1. A pictograph or ideogram that is used as the standard representation of a specific word.

   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."

   1994, William G. Boltz, The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System

   2 more examples

   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.

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

   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.

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