Even more pedantically, paper made from cotton and linen is paper by most definitions.
Wood pulp paper is by far the most common these days, but that's surprisingly recent (mid-19th century). Before that it was mostly cotton, linen and hemp.
It's paper. It just happens to be a cotton/linen long-fibre pulp blend rather than, say, wood pulp. That's how most paper was made from the origins of the stuff, in the West at least; wood pulp and so forth are relatively new in the grand scheme of things.
Oh, neat! I was repeating a thing I'd heard, but is apparently misleading.
According to a few sources I've found, paper is the name for anything primarily made of tangled cellulose fibers, which can be harvested from many different plant products. The more restrictive "definition", which I had been alluding to, considers only cellulose fibers derived from wood pulp as "true" paper.
Papyrus, the ancient Egyptian writing surface, is not considered paper because the raw material is not processed to remove most non-cellulose contents. Other non-paper writing surfaces throughout history include: vellum/parchment (made from prepared animal skins), clay, animal bones, bamboo and wooden slips, silk, leaves, bark, and I'm sure dozens of others.
Wood pulp paper is by far the most common these days, but that's surprisingly recent (mid-19th century). Before that it was mostly cotton, linen and hemp.
reply