CALAMUS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Calamus

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noun

Calamus n. (pl. calami)

(Bot.) The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See Rattan, and Dragon's blood.

(Bot.) A species of Acorus (Acorus calamus), commonly called calamus, or sweet flag. The root has a pungent, aromatic taste, and is used in medicine as a stomachic; the leaves have an aromatic odor, and were formerly used instead of rushes to strew on floors.

(Zool.) The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.

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Etymology of 'Calamus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Calamus" Quotes from Famous Books

... its creepers, and some of them very curious. The most remarkable are the ratans, belonging to the Calamus genus of palms. Of these I have seen a specimen 250 feet long and an inch in diameter, without a single irregularity, and no appearance of foliage other than the bunch of feathery ...

— Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and • James Emerson Tennent

Words linked to "Calamus" : Calamus penna, Calamus rotang, rattan palm, sheepshead porgy, swamp plant, root, marsh plant, Calamus australis, Acorus, palm tree, lawyer cane, rattan, shaft, plume, bog plant, plumage, feather, genus Calamus, flagroot, family Sparidae, quill, calamus oil, Acorus calamus, myrtle flag, Sparidae, genus Acorus, palm, rib