What is "lotus"

Lotus \Lo"tus\ (l[=o]"t[u^]s), n. [L. lotus, Gr. lwto`s. Cf. Lote.]

1. (Bot.)

   1. A name of several kinds of water lilies; as Nelumbium speciosum, used in religious ceremonies, anciently in Egypt, and to this day in Asia; Nelumbium luteum, the American lotus; and Nymph[ae]a Lotus and Nymph[ae]a c[ae]rulea, the respectively white-flowered and blue-flowered lotus of modern Egypt, which, with Nelumbium speciosum, are figured on its ancient monuments.

   2. The lotus of the lotuseaters, probably a tree found in Northern Africa, Sicily, Portugal, and Spain ( Zizyphus Lotus), the fruit of which is mildly sweet. It was fabled by the ancients to make strangers who ate of it forget their native country, or lose all desire to return to it.

   3. The lote, or nettle tree. See Lote.

   4. A genus ( Lotus) of leguminous plants much resembling clover. [Written also lotos.]

      European lotus, a small tree ( Diospyros Lotus) of Southern Europe and Asia; also, its rather large bluish black berry, which is called also the date plum.

2. (Arch.) An ornament much used in Egyptian architecture, generally asserted to have been suggested by the Egyptian water lily.

1540s, from Latin lotus, from Greek lotos, name used for several plants before it came to mean Egyptian white lotus (a sense attested in English from 1580s); perhaps from a Semitic source (compare Hebrew lot "myrrh"). The yogic sense is attested from 1848. Lotus-eaters (1812) are from Greek lotophagoi, mentioned in "Odyssey," book IX.

n. 1 A kind of aquatic plant, genus ''Nelumbo'' in the family Nelumbonaceae. 2 A water lily, genus ''Nymphaea'', especially those of Egypt or India. 3 A legendary plant eaten by the Lotophagi of the ''Odyssey'' that caused drowsiness and euphoria. 4 A number of other plants bearing "lotus" in their scientific or common names (see #Derived terms below). 5 # ''Diospyros lotus'', date plum or (vern: Caucasian persimmon). 6 # ''Lotus'', a genus that includes (vern: bird's-foot trefoil)s and (vern: deer vetch)es, a terrestrial genus with small flowers 7 # (taxlink Ziziphus lotus species noshow=1), a shrub species with edible fruit 8 An architectural motif of ancient Egyptian temples.

1. n. native to eastern Asia; widely cultivated for its large pink or white flowers [syn: Indian lotus, sacred lotus, Nelumbo nucifera]

2. annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs [syn: genus Lotus]

3. white Egyptian lotus: water lily of Egypt to southeastern Africa; held sacred by the Egyptians [syn: white lotus, Egyptian water lily, white lily, Nymphaea lotus]

Lotus may refer to:

Lotus is a 1974 live album by the Latin rock band Santana, recorded at the Osaka Koseinenkin Hall, Osaka, Japan in 1973. It was originally released in 1974 as a triple vinyl LP in Japan only. The first U.S. release was in 1991 as a 2- CD set.

Lotus has been re-issued on vinyl in the Netherlands and on CD in Japan in 2006 as a 3-CD set. It was also re-issued as a 3-LP set in the U.S. in 2013.

Lotus is a board game for two to four players developed by Dominique Teller and published by Ravensburger Spieleverlag. The object of the game is to move one's pieces off the board before the other players. The game board is hexagonal in shape; it has a large image of a Chinese dragon in the middle, and a Chinese character in each board position.

The Lotus was a popular English pop/rock band in Hong Kong in the 1960s. The most notable member was Samuel Hui.

Lotus is an instrumental electronic jam band formed in Indiana in 1999 now based in Philadelphia, PA and Denver, CO.

"Lotus" is the 26th single by Japanese band Dir En Grey, released on January 26, 2011 in Japan in a regular and limited edition, the limited copy featuring a bonus DVD.

The first B-side, "Obscure", is a re-recording of a track from band's fourth album, Vulgar. The second B-side is a live recording of the song "Reiketsu Nariseba", from the band's seventh album, Uroboros, recorded on July 20, 2010, at Shinkiba Studio Coast. The DVD included in the limited edition features three live songs taken from a concert held by the band on the following day.

Lotus, derived from lota (a small, usually spherical water vessel of brass, copper or plastic used in parts of South Asia), is a genus that includes most bird's-foot trefoils (also known as bacon-and-eggs) and deervetches and contains many dozens of species distributed world-wide. Depending on the taxonomic authority, roughly between 70 and 150 are accepted. Lotus is a genus of legume and its members are adapted to a wide range of habitats, from coastal environments to high altitudes. Most species have leaves with five leaflets; two of these are at the extreme base of the leaf, with the other three at the tip of a naked midrib. This gives the appearance of a pair of large stipules below a " petiole" bearing a trefoil of three leaflets – in fact, the true stipules are minute, soon falling or withering. Some species have pinnate leaves with up to 15 leaflets. The flowers are in clusters of three to ten together at the apex of a stem with some basal leafy bracts; they are pea-flower shaped, usually vivid yellow, but occasionally orange or red. The seeds develop in three or four straight, strongly diverging pods, which together make a shape reminiscent of the diverging toes of a small bird, leading to the common name "bird's-foot".

The genus Lotus is currently undergoing extensive taxonomic revision. All species native to California (30 spp.) have been recently moved to the genera Acmispon and Hosackia in the second edition of The Jepson Manual.

The Lotus series consists of three racing computer games based around the Lotus brand: Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, Lotus Turbo Challenge 2, and Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge. Published between 1990 and 1992 by Gremlin Graphics, the games gained very favourable reviews upon release. Original Amiga versions of the games were created by Shaun Southern and Andrew Morris of Magnetic Fields, and then ported by other individuals to several other computers and game consoles.

"Lotus" is a song by R.E.M., released as the second single from their eleventh studio album Up.

The song's recurring line "I ate the lotus" appeared in an alternate form ("I'll eat the lotus...") in a previous R.E.M. song, "Be Mine".

The line "dot dot dot and I feel fine" is a reference to R.E.M.'s 1987 hit " It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".

The song is somewhat minimalist, with Michael Stipe singing surreal lyrics in a percussive manner. It builds on a four-note keyboard part, with a distorted guitar riff at the beginning and after the second chorus.

The single's video, directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, was included as a bonus video on the DVD release of In View - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003. "I wanted to work with Stephane for a long time," Stipe explained to MTV UK during An Hour with R.E.M. in 2001 after selecting the video for airplay. "Since I saw the video that he did with Björk for, what was that called, " Big Time Sexuality" or something? Where she looks exactly like Shirley MacLaine, 1959-1961. The Apartment, I think, was the name of the film. Shirley McLaine and Björk as Shirley MacLaine on the back of a pick-up truck driving down 5th Avenue in New York City, probably. But I thought this guy exudes sex, he's like sex on a stick, and I wanted to work with him for that reason. He somehow transmogrified that very thing through me. I look very, very foxy in this video, which is why I chose it; it shows off my incredible stomach muscles."

For live performances of the song, Peter Buck alternates between electric guitar (chorus) and keyboard (verse). "[Playing keyboard] always excites me," Buck explained in a soundbite during MTV Uplink, a recording of the band's performance at New York's Bowery Ballroom in October 1998, "even though it's only with one finger." "But it's a big finger," joked Mills. "It's great."

"Lotus" is a song recorded by Japanese boy band Arashi. It was released on February 23, 2011 by their record label J Storm. The single is used as the theme song to the drama Bartender starring Arashi member Masaki Aiba. It was released in two editions: a regular edition containing two bonus tracks and instrumental versions of all the songs released in the single, and an limited edition containing a bonus track along with a DVD with a music video of the single.

According to Oricon, the single was ranked as the sixth best-selling single in Japan for the year 2011.

Lotus was a brand name used on certain guitars made in various Asian factories from the late 1970s until the late 1990s. Lotus guitars were usually copies of better-known, up-market brand-name guitars, such as the Gibson Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster. The quality of the instruments was very good for the price (usually around US$400–$900).

The most common and lesser-quality Lotus guitars were usually manufactured by Samick and others in Korea and India. The top-of-the-line early 1980s models were made by both in Korea by Cort Guitars (early neck-though models) and in Japan by Morris / Moridaira (neck-through models, set-neck Washburn Eagle copies, and decent Gibson Les Paul copies).

Like the Matsumoku guitars of that era, both the early Korean Cort and Japanese Morris-made Lotus guitars are of high quality.

Lotus guitars are no longer in production. While the low-end guitars have rightfully only experienced a minimal gain in value, the high-end models usually range from $100–$300 and are becoming quite collectible.

Chauntelle DuPree of the band Eisley used a Lotus Stratocaster copy for many years on tour and to record. While the quality of this guitar would not typically be considered to be on a professional level, it did provide an inexpensive platform for experimentation and upgrade (with non-Lotus parts), which resulted in a unique sounding instrument.

The Moridaira-made Lotus guitars are the rarest and hardest to find as Lotus/Morris made them at most for only 2–3 years. These guitars all are solid-bodied and were made in the same factory as Tokai. There are only 3 models that are known to have come from Lotus/Morris:

1. The Lotus L670B (a direct copy of the 1980-1982/3 Fender "Bullet"—MIA and MIJ, but not MIK) other than having switches instead of buttons, a different headstock shape, a solid body and the same pickups. There were no letters on the headstock.
2. The Lotus Vantage copy (Washburn Eagle, Aria Pro II Cardinal series, or Ibanez Artist) double cutaway (batwing) guitar with a solid body, 3 per side tuners on headstock, rosewood fingerboard with brass inlays, brass nut and neck-through construction (though there may have been a bolt-on model). This was usually finished in emerald green, polished mahogany or stained blue/white breadboard style and occasionally gloss white with 2 exposed humbucker pickups.
3. A more conventional Gibson Les Paul copy, usually only seen in gloss black or tobacco burst. These were neck through with hardware similar to their double-cutaway Vantage copy.

These three models are easily on a par with the Matsumoku-made Westbury and the high-end neck-through Vantage guitars.

Lotus started with the elite league of Japanese craftsmen and initially made excellent Morris-branded guitars, but trying to keep up with the heavyweights such as Matsumoku Aria Pro II and Fuji-Gen Gakki Ibanez was difficult. Mismanagement and, especially, the inability to market their initial superb-quality guitars soon had Lotus' owners scrambling for cheaper labor, ending in India with poor quality and eventually no takers for their product, as Chinese and Indonesian guitar producers stepped up with instruments of comparable quality at similar prices.

More Info in the Cort Dragon Inlay Guitars

Lotus is the fourth studio album by Elisa, released in 2003. Initially idealized as a live album, Lotus became a mix between studio album (with six new songs), a greatest hits album (due to the seven songs re-recorded from previous albums) and a cover album (three are the covers). The album is predominantly acoustic; following the initial idea, in fact, the album was completely recorded as a live.

The album starts with a cover version of Leonard Cohen's song " Hallelujah" from his 1984 album Various Positions. " Sleeping in Your Hand", "Labyrinth" and "The Marriage" are taken from Elisa's 1997 debut album Pipes & Flowers, while "Gift" and " Luce (tramonti a nord est)" are from her second album Asile's World, and "Rock Your Soul" and "Stranger" are from her third album Then Comes the Sun. All of them were revisited in acoustic version, really in contrast with the initial forms. " Femme Fatale" is a cover of a song from The Velvet Underground's first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, and even it was slowed and changed very much from its initial form, while " Almeno tu nell'universo" was a famous Italian song by Mia Martini.

Lotus was a brand of bicycles designed, specified, marketed and distributed by Lotus International Corp. of Syosset, New York, which had been founded by Sid and Ernst Star. The bikes were offered as a complete range, from entry level to professional models, and were manufactured by Tsunoda Bicycle Corporation of Nagoya, Japan (founded in 1926, still in business) and subsequently by other manufacturers — including a group of mid-1980s high end models manufactured in Italy, in conjunction with Cinelli.

Lotus International marketed its bikes using an abstraction of the Lotus flower as its logo.

During the U.S. bike boom of the 1970s and into the 1980s, Lotus and Alpha Cycle & Supply competed with domestic companies including Schwinn, TREK, Huffy, and Murray; European companies including Raleigh, Peugeot and Motobecane — as well as other nascent Japanese brands including Miyata, Fuji, Bridgestone, Panasonic, Univega, Centurion and Nishiki. Japanese-manufactured bikes succeeded in the U.S. market until currency fluctuations in the late 1980s made them less competitive, leading companies to source bicycles from Taiwan.

Lotus is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Christina Aguilera, released on November 9, 2012 by RCA Records. Its music incorporates pop styles with elements of dance-pop, rock in the form of upbeat songs and piano-driven ballads. Aguilera described the album as a "rebirth", drawing inspiration from events in her life, her appearance on The Voice, and her divorce. The album was recorded at Aguilera's home studio. As executive producer, she collaborated with a wide range of producers, including new partners Alex da Kid, Max Martin, Lucas Secon and Tracklacers.

Upon its release, Lotus received generally mixed reviews from music critics, who were ambivalent towards its lyrics and found its music conventional. It debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 73,408 units. Internationally, the album charted moderately, but obtained higher positions in Canada and Russia where the album reached the top 10. Two singles were released from the album in North America. The first single " Your Body" charted within the top 40 of most countries. The second one, " Just a Fool", was a duet with fellow The Voice coach Blake Shelton and peaked at number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100. Though not released as a single, " Let There Be Love" topped the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart at number 1. In August 2013, along with a letter to her fans, Aguilera released a music video for the song.