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Added 9 October 2026

calamus

noun

Latin root: calamus Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). More about calamus at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Sweet flag (Acorus calamus).
A quill; the hard, horny, hollow, and more or less transparent part of the stem or scape of a feather.
A fish of genus Calamus in family Sparidae; certain porgies.

Origin

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

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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