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papyrus |
2 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Papyrus \Pa*py"rus\, n.; pl {Papyri}. [L., fr Gr ?. See {Paper}.] 1. (Bot.) A tall rushlike plant ({Cyperus Papyrus}) of the Sedge family, formerly growing in Egypt, and now found in Abyssinia, Syria, Sicily, etc The stem is triangular and about an inch thick. 2. The material upon which the ancient Egyptians wrote. It was formed by cutting the stem of the plant into thin longitudinal slices, which were gummed together and pressed. 3. A manuscript written on papyrus; esp., pl., written scrolls made of papyrus; as the papyri of Egypt or Herculaneum. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: papyrus n 1: paper made from the papyrus plant by cutting it in strips and pressing it flat; used by ancient Egyptians and Greeks and Romans 2: tall sedge of the Nile valley yielding fiber that served many purposes in historic times [syn: {Egyptian paper reed}, {paper rush}, {Cyperus papyrus}] 3: a document written on papyrus
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