lotus
/ˈləʊtəs
/noun
1Either of two large water lilies:
- (also sacred lotus) A red-flowered Asian lily (Nelumbo nucifera, family Nelumbonaceae). (also Egyptian lotus) A lily regarded as sacred in ancient Egypt (the white-flowered Nymphaea lotus and the blue-flowered N. caerulea, family Nymphaeaceae)..
- If your pond is at least three feet deep, you can experiment with wild rice, water lotus, and water lily.
- All water lilies and lotuses studied have aerenchyma.
2 Greek Mythology A plant whose fruit induced a dreamy forgetfulness and an unwillingness to leave.The music is inspired by the Ancient Greek myth of island dwellers whose diet of fruit from the lotus tree makes them forget their past troubles....
- The starving men ate the fruit, but Ulysses quickly understood that the lotus fruit destroyed men's memories.
3The flower of the sacred lotus as a symbol in Asian art and religion: a myth of creation states that Buddha was born of a thousand-petalled gold lotus...
- The Asian sacred lotus represents the highest branch on the botanical family tree that shows heat generation.
- In one popular depiction, he sits on a lotus flower between the Hindu gods Brahm and Indra and creates a vast number of lotuses all with himself seated in their centers.
- Two Swords are crossed in inner and outer conflict today but the flowering lotus, a symbol of love, in the middle of the two swords brings peace and compromise.
Origin
Late 15th century (denoting a type of clover or trefoil, described by Homer as food for horses): via Latin from Greek lōtos, of Semitic origin. The term was used by classical writers to denote various trees and plants; the legendary plant (sense 2), mentioned by Homer, was thought by later Greek writers to be Ziziphus lotus, a relative of the jujube.