Paper Was Made of a Plant First

Paper we use now for writing has covered a long way before it has come to us.

The English word paper developed from the French papier, which, in turn, came from the Latin papyrus and is relative to the Greek papyros. The Greeks gave the name papyros to a reed which was once plentiful in Egypt. When the Egyptians needed something to write on, they made it from this reed. The Egyptians sliced the inside of the papyros stems very thin. They laid these slices side by side, then crisscrossed them with another layer of slices. When the sheet was dry, it made very durable material. On that material they wrote with a brush or a reed. You can see ancient Egyptian papyrus manuscripts in museums.

About AD 900 Egyptians learned the Chinese method of paper making and stopped using papyrus for writing. A new method was spread, but the product was still called by the old name paper.

Теги: english words | history of english words | word origin | история английских слов | происхождение английских слов | происхождение слова paper