Dictionary

calamus en · NOUN

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) Sweet flag (Acorus calamus).
   • 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 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Song of Solomon 4:12–14:
2. (uncountable, usually) A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.
   • 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. 1956, Advisory Board on Quartermaster Research and Development, The Utilization of Chicken Feathers as Filling Materials, page 9:
   • Chapin asserted that the calamus is firmly fixed in the wing 1969, CH Fry, “Structural and functional adaptation to display in the Standard‐winged nightjar Macrodipteryx longipennis”, in Journal of Zoology:
   • In follicles late in feather growth, after rupture of the feather sheath, this canal contained the upper part of the calamus. 1969, RIC Spearman, “The epidermis and feather follicles of the king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonica) (aves)”, in Zeitschrift für Morphologie der Tiere:
3. (uncountable, usually) A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies.
4. (uncountable, usually) A palm in genus Calamus, of rattan palms.
5. (uncountable, usually) A fistular stem without an articulation.
6. (historical, uncountable, usually) Synonym of fistula (“tube for sucking Eucharist wine”).

Forms

Synonyms

fistula