2737: Paper: How Papyrus has Changed Jun 18, 2024

Although papyrus writing is all but unheard of today, the legacy still lives on in the word ‘paper’. More accurately, it was not a later revival after the use of wood pulp in papermaking, but a continuously used term. In fact, the word ‘papyrus’ as it refers to the material as opposed to merely the plant was a later invention in English based off the original Greek, in the 18th century. While there have been other materials in use, notably parchment and linen, the generic use of paper can still be seen in ‘paper money’, which has never been made from wood pulp. This is an example of semantic narrowing, where a word’s meaning begins to exclude connotations it once had, where ‘paper’ has become a material, rather than any writing surface.