Calamus CALAMUS, n.
1. The generic name of the Indian cane, called also rotang. It is without branches, has a crown at the top, and is beset with spines.
2. In antiquity, a pipe or fistula, a wind instrument, made of a reed or oaten stalk.
3. A rush or reed used anciently as a pen to write on parchment or papyrus.
4. A sort of reed, or sweet-scented cane, used by the Jews as a perfume. It is a knotty root, reddish without and white within, and filled with a spungy substance. It has an aromatic smell.
5. The sweet flag, called by Linne Acorus.

calamus n 1: any tropical Asian palm of the genus Calamus; light tough stems are a source of rattan canes 2: the aromatic root of the sweet flag used medicinally 3: perennial marsh plant having swordlike leaves and aromatic roots [syn: sweet flag, calamus, sweet calamus, myrtle flag}, flagroot, Acorus calamus] 4: a genus of Sparidae [syn: Calamus, genus Calamus] 5: the hollow spine of a feather [syn: quill, calamus, shaft]

calamus noun (plural calami) Etymology: Latin, reed, reed pen, from Greek kalamos — more at haulm Date: 14th century 1. a. sweet flag b. the aromatic peeled and dried rhizome of the sweet flag that is the source of a carcinogenic essential oil 2. the hollow basal portion of a feather below the vane ; quill

Calamus \Cal"a*mus\, n.; pl. Calami. [L., a reed. See Halm.] 1. (Bot.) The indian cane, a plant of the Palm family. It furnishes the common rattan. See Rattan, and Dragon's blood}. 2. (Bot.) A species of Acorus ({A. 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. 3. (Zo["o]l.) The horny basal portion of a feather; the barrel or quill.

CALAMUS kal'-a-mus. See REED.

Calamus the Latin for cane, Hebrew _Kaneh_, mentioned (Ex. 30:23) as one of the ingredients in the holy anointing oil, one of the sweet scents (Cant. 4:14), and among the articles sold in the markets of Tyre (Ezek. 27:19). The word designates an Oriental plant called the "sweet flag," the Acorus calamus of Linnaeus. It is elsewhere called "sweet cane" (Isa. 43:24; Jer. 6:20). It has an aromatic smell, and when its knotted stalk is cut and dried and reduced to powder, it forms an ingredient in the most precious perfumes. It was not a native of Palestine, but was imported from Arabia Felix or from India. It was probably that which is now known in India by the name of "lemon grass" or "ginger grass," the Andropogon schoenanthus. (See CANE.)

Calamus, IA (city, FIPS 9820) Location: 41.82665 N, 90.75967 W Population (1990): 379 (170 housing units) Area: 1.3 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water) Zip code(s): 52729

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