Pseudo-Hebrew is the artistic use of symbols meant to appear like
Hebrew script
The Hebrew alphabet (, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is a unicase, unicameral abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewish languages, most notably ...
but that are not in fact Hebrew letters. The related phenomenon of the use of actual Hebrew letters in ways that do not represent actual language may be called "nonsense Hebrew". Gary Schwartz, an art historian, notes that the use of pseudo-Hebrew in 15th-century art is not distinctive, as other works of the time also contain pseudo-Greek, Hebrew, and Latin.
See also
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Faux Hebrew
Faux Hebrew is a Latin script typeface that mimics the calligraphic curves and large serif of Hebrew characters. The style is used for decorative purposes, such as in artwork, foreign branding advertisements, and antisemitic propaganda, often ...
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Pseudo-Kufic
Pseudo-Kufic, or Kufesque, also sometimes pseudo-Arabic, is a style of decoration used during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance,Encyclopaedia BritannicaBeautiful Gibberish: Fake Arabic in Medieval and Renaissance Art/ref> consisting of imitation ...
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Pseudo-runes
Pseudo-runes are letters that look like Germanic runes but are not true ancient runes. The term is mostly used of incised characters that are intended to imitate runes, often visually or symbolically, sometimes even with no linguistic content, bu ...
Notes
Bibliography
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* Originally published in Romanian in ''Caiete de Arte și Design'' 8 (2020): 58–63.
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Medieval art
Christian iconography
Hebrew alphabet
Pseudoscripts