papyruses

pa·py·rus

[puh-pahy-ruhs]
noun, plural pa·py·ri [-pahy-rahy, -ree] , pa·py·rus·es.
1.
a tall, aquatic plant, Cyperus papyrus, of the sedge family, native to the Nile valley: the Egyptian subspecies, C. papyrus hadidii, thought to be common in ancient times, now occurs only in several sites.
2.
a material on which to write, prepared from thin strips of the pith of this plant laid together, soaked, pressed, and dried, used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
3.
an ancient document, manuscript, or scroll written on this material.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English papirus < Latin papȳrus < Greek pápȳros

pa·py·ral, pa·pyr·i·an [puh-pir-ee-uhn] , pa·py·rine [puh-pahy-rin] , adjective
pap·y·ri·tious [pap-uh-rish-uhs] , adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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00:10
Papyruses is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
papyrus (pəˈpaɪrəs) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n , pl -ri, -ruses
1.  a tall aquatic cyperaceous plant, Cyperus papyrus, of S Europe and N and central Africa with small green-stalked flowers arranged like umbrella spokes around the stem top
2.  a kind of paper made from the stem pith of this plant, used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans
3.  an ancient document written on this paper
 
[C14: via Latin from Greek papūros reed used in making paper]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

papyrus
c.1395, from L. papyrus "the paper plant, paper made from it," from Gk. papyros "any plant of the paper plant genus," said to be of Egyptian origin. Proper plural is papyri.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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