Hypertext Webster Gateway: "papyrus"
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) 1.7 (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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