1º_ Common name of the plant Cyperus papyrus, which was very abundant in Egypt but today is extinct in the Nile region. 2º_ Among the many uses of the plant the best known is the manufacture of sheets as a support for writing on rolls. The Greeks called these scrolls ?????? (biblos) for its shape, as it also means "stem", and ??????? ( papyri ) to the plant and the plate to write, name that the Romans took as papyrum , i , from where it came to the Spanish . There is a myth about the Egyptian origin of the word 'papyrus', but they pronounced it as thuf and it had no relation to actual possession or monopoly. See paper, parchment, book.
