Glyphographies

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Methods of making relief printing plates by cutting a design into a wax coating on a metal surface and then etching it
2. Techniques for producing printing blocks in which an image is incised into wax over metal and chemically bitten into relief
3. Historical engraving processes that create raised printing surfaces by carving designs into a wax-covered metal plate

Etymology: Glyphography is a technical coinage, not an ancient term. It was built in the 19th century from Greek "glyphein", "to carve", and the suffix "-graphy", "writing or recording", so the word literally means carving-writing. The process it names was invented by Sir Joseph Wilson Swan in the 1860s, who developed a way to cut a design into a wax-coated metal plate and then electrotype it for printing. The word "glyphographies" is simply the plural of the noun, referring to several such methods.