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Abbreviated Greek letters naming the figure in an icon.
Also known as: Icon lettering, Nomina sacra
Orthodox icons carry abbreviated inscriptions naming the figure, usually in Greek or Church Slavonic with a bar over the contracted letters. The inscription is what makes the image an icon rather than a portrait, and an uninscribed panel is treated as unfinished.
Names the figure depicted in an Orthodox icon, in abbreviated Greek or Church Slavonic letters with a bar over the contraction.
Contexts: Religion
Is what identifies the panel as an icon of a named person rather than a picture, which is why an uninscribed panel is regarded as incomplete.
Contexts: Religion
Two or three capital letters with a horizontal bar ruled above them, painted in the upper corners of a panel.
A fuller structured visual breakdown is not yet documented for this symbol.