Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Plural of papyrus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural of papyrus, particularly in the sense of ancient documents written on papyrus.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • In this case, there are the words of a modern historian, who has studied Egypt all his life, not in Berlin or London, like some other historians, but in Egypt, deciphering the inscriptions of the oldest sarcophagi and papyri, that is to say, the words of Henry

    From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan 1861

  • They showed us the process of deciphering the papyri, which is very ingenious.

    The Greville Memoirs A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV, Volume 1 (of 3) Charles Greville 1829

  • The harmless word "papyri" had wrought that remarkable change; could it be, I wondered, that a cache of these objects had been found?

    The Mummy Case Peters, Elizabeth 1985

  • In the second place, a museum is a store-house for historical documents such as papyri and ostraca, and in this respect it is simply to be regarded as a kind of public library, capable of unlimited and perfectly legitimate expansion.

    The Treasury of Ancient Egypt Miscellaneous Chapters on Ancient Egyptian History and Archaeology Arthur E. P. B. Weigall

  • Of the Greek literary papyri that have been edited, a full half are scraps of Homer, a further quarter are from works familiar from the manuscript tradition and the remainder are previously unknown.

    June 21st, 2009 m_francis 2009

  • Anyway, if people would just refer to the Greek magical papyri, we could save a lot of money around here on employment agencies, help wanted ads and headhunter fees.

    Find an Assistant the Greek Magical Papyri Way! Con Chapman 2011

  • The ancient Egyptian language was written and spoken for two-thirds of recorded human history, and a great volume of economic and legal records are preserved in papyri and inscriptions, including some spectacular documents that go back to 2000 B.C.

    Beyond the Pharaohs Joseph Manning 2011

  • The surviving Greek magical papyri, a collection of spells and rituals that were suppressed by the early Christians, include two that relate to acquiring an assistant.

    Find an Assistant the Greek Magical Papyri Way! Con Chapman 2011

  • The papyri from Egypt and epigraphical evidence show that this was not the concern of most pagan Greeks.

    June 21st, 2009 m_francis 2009

  • Of course, this does not tell us what people were actually reading and we can get a better idea of this from the papyri retrieved from the sands of Egypt, especially at Oxyrynchus.

    June 21st, 2009 m_francis 2009

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