rosetta stone
US
・UK
B1
proper noun
- An inscribed stone found near Rosetta (now called Rashid) on the western mouth of the Nile in Egypt in 1799. Its text is written in three scripts: hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. The deciphering of the hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollion in 1822 led to the interpretation of many other early records of Egyptian civilization.
noun
- A key to some previously undecipherable mystery or unattainable knowledge.