# calamus
## English
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin calamus (“reed, cane”), from Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos). Doublet of culm, haulm, helm (Etymology 4), qalam, and shawm.

### Noun

calamus (usually uncountable, plural calamuses or calami)
* The sweet flag, Acorus calamus.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Song of Solomon 4:12–14:A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices
* (ornithology) A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.
** 1956, Advisory Board on Quartermaster Research and Development, The Utilization of Chicken Feathers as Filling Materials, page 9:Thus, the four distinct feather parts that have been compared as to amino acid content to note whether or not the composition is uniform are rachis, barbs, calamus and medulla.
** 1969, RIC Spearman, “The epidermis and feather follicles of the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica) (aves)”, in Zeitschrift für Morphologie der Tiere:In follicles late in feather growth, after rupture of the feather sheath, this canal contained the upper part of the calamus.
** 1969, CH Fry, “Structural and functional adaptation to display in the Standard‐winged nightjar Macrodipteryx longipennis”, in Journal of Zoology:Chapin asserted that the calamus is firmly fixed in the wing
* A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies.
* A palm in genus Calamus, of rattan palms.
* (Christianity, historical) Synonym of fistula (“tube for sucking Eucharist wine”).

#### Translations
### Further reading

* calamus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Acorus calamus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
* Calamus (Sparidae) on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
* Calamus (Arecaceae) on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
* “calamus”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* “calamus”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

## Latin
### Etymology

From Ancient Greek κάλαμος (kálamos), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱolh₂mos. Doublet of culmus. Compare calamīna.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈka.la.mus/, [ˈkäɫ̪ämʊs̠]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈka.la.mus/, [ˈkäːlämus]

### Noun

calamus m (genitive calamī); second declension
* a reed, cane
* (by extension) an object made from a reed, such as a reed pen, arrow, or fishing rod
** Motto of Keio University:
    Calamus gladio fortior
       The pen is mightier than the sword.
* (of plants) a stalk, straw, blade
* the hollow arm of a candelabrum
* a whistle or musical pipe; sometimes specifically a blown pipe with tone holes

#### Declension

Second-declension noun.

#### Derived terms

* calamārius
* calamister
* calamellus

#### Descendants

* Albanian: kallam
* Italian: calamo
* Old French: chaume
** French: chaume
* Romanian: carâmb
* → Catalan: càlam
* → English: calamus
* → French: calame
* → Galician: cálamo
* → German: Kalmus
* →⇒ Norwegian Nynorsk: kalmerot, kalmusrot, kamrot
* → Portuguese: cálamo
* → Spanish: cálamo

### References

* “calamus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “calamus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* calamus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* calamus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* “calamus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
* “calamus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
* Lexicon musicum Latinum medii aevi, digital version in the Wörterbuchnetz des Trier Center for Digital Humanities, version 01/21, accessed 12 May 2022.