lotusn.

Etymology: < classical Latin lōtus, lōtos mythical plant bringing forgetfulness on those who eat its fruits (variously identified by ancient and modern authors), nettle-tree, clove-tree, name given to various trefoils, Egyptian water lily < ancient Greek λωτός , name of various plants, as clover, trefoil, melilot, Egyptian water lily, nettle-tree, and also of a mythical plant bringing forgetfulness on those who eat its fruits, of unknown origin. Compare Middle French, French lotus (16th cent.). Compare lote n.¹A Semitic origin has sometimes been suggested for the Greek word, but this is difficult either to substantiate or to disprove; compare Hebrew lōṭ myrrh, Arabic lādan ladanum (see ladanum n.). The plant name λωτός refers among the Greeks of Asia Minor from the 8th cent. b.c. to several species from the families of the water lilies ( Nymphaeaceae) and the crowfoot plants ( Ranunculaceae). The identification of the lotus plant mentioned by Homer with species of clover probably goes back to speculations by early interpreters of the author. For Egypt, two different plants are described under the name λωτός by Herodotus (2. 92. 2f.): the white-flowering Nymphaea lotus and the blue-flowering Nymphaea caerulea. The ‘Indian lotus’, Nelumbo nucifera, also a Nymphaeacea, was erroneously called a lotus by Theophrastus (4. 8. 10). The woody lotus that grows in North Africa, the ‘Cyrenaean lotus’ of Herodotus (2. 96; 4. 117), is the Christ's thorn, Zizyphus spina christi and Zizyphus lotus, from the family of the buckthorn plants ( Rhamnaceae), with date-like fruits, also used to make wine; the dark wood was used to make wind instruments. The wood and fruits of the nettle tree, Celtis australis ( Ulmaceae), which was also native to Greece, were similarly used. This probably explains its also being called lōtus (see Theophrastus Historia plantarum 1. 5. 3; Pliny Historia Naturalis 16. 123f. and 235f.; Virgil Georgics 2. 84). In (literal and figurative) uses with reference to the Indian lotus (senses 6 and Compounds 1b) often translating Sanskrit padma padma n. and sometimes also the unrelated Sanskrit puṇḍarīka white lotus (underlying e.g. Lotus Sutra n. at Compounds 2). In form lotos probably partly after the Greek; this form is common in the 19th cent., but now only used occasionally with reference or allusion to use by Tennyson (e.g. in his poem Lotos-eaters; compare quot. 1832 at sense 2).