- lotus
- c.1540, from L. lotus, from Gk. lotos, name used for several plants before it came to mean Egyptian white lotus (a sense attested in Eng. from 1584); perhaps from a Sem. source (cf. Heb. lot "myrrh"). The yogic sense is attested from 1848. Lotus-eaters (1832) are from Gk. lotophagoi, mentioned in "Odyssey," book IX.