papyrus

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English papirus,^[2][3][4][5] borrowed from Latin papȳrus (“the papyrus reed; writing material made from it”),^[6][2][3] from Ancient Greek πάπυρος (pápūros, “the papyrus reed”),^[6][7][8] a Hellenistic word.^[6] Merriam-Webster has the word pass through Medieval Latin.^[5] The Greek word is of unknown or uncertain origin,^[6][7][9][8] a loan that is often said to be Egyptian.^[4][8][3] Compare Italian papiro and Old Occitan papiri.^[6] It is a doublet of paper.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plant: about 1395 in the Wycliffe Bible, according to Barnhart,^[3] and before 1398 in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, according to the OED.^[6] Etymonline has the late 14th century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The earliest English sense is the plant, a tall sedge of the Nile valley,^[6][10] which used to grow abundantly on the marshy riverbanks of Egypt and Palestine and gave the ancient Egyptians a cheap writing surface.^[4] Although the Latin word already covered the writing material,^[6][3] English has that sense only later: Hoad and the Shorter Oxford date it to the 18th century,^[7][9] and the OED first finds it in 1724, in H. Wanley's diary.^[6] Wanley also has the sense "a document written on papyrus", in a letter of 1697;^[6] the revised OED thereby moves that sense earlier than the Shorter Oxford's early 19th century.^[9] The adjective use, "made of papyrus", dates from the late 19th century.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – the papyrus plant.^[3] The OED has it from before 1398.^[6]
• 1697 – a document written on papyrus.^[6]
• 1724 – the writing material made from the plant.^[6]
• late 19th century – adjective, made of papyrus.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tall aquatic sedge, Cyperus papyrus, of the Nile valley and central Africa.^[11][5][6]
2. A writing material made from the pith of this plant, used by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.^[11][5][6]
3. An ancient manuscript or document written on this material.^[11][6][9]

Word family

• papyral

Related words

• papyraceous
• papyrology
• paper
• taper

Usage notes

The classically correct plural is papyri,^[4] and dictionaries also accept papyruses.^[5][11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins