In
Egyptian hieroglyphs, a
cartouche is an oval with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a
royal name, coming into use during the beginning of the
Fourth Dynasty under Pharaoh
Sneferu. While the cartouche is usually vertical with a horizontal line, it is sometimes horizontal if it makes the name fit better, with a vertical line on the left. The
Ancient Egyptian word for it was
shenu, and it was essentially an expanded
shen ring. In
Demotic, the cartouche was reduced to a pair of brackets and a vertical line.