palmyra

name

1. An ancient city, an oasis in the Syrian Desert, in present-day central Syria, recorded historically from around 2000 BCE, subsequently subject to various empires and destroyed in 273 CE and again in 1400, when it was reduced to a village.

   “In the mid-fifth century B.C. Herodotus (1:131; 3.8) mentioned the importance of the cult of Al-Ilât, i.e. Allat, in ancient Arabia. Her sanctuary at Palmyra (Pl. XVII), excavated in the 1970s by the Polish mission, is in the neighborhood of the temple of Baal Shamin and lends a special character to the city's western quarter, in which Arab tribes settled during the second century B.C.”

   “The chief man in Palmyra had been charged by Rome to police the trade routes, paying for his militia from his own well-stuffed coffers as befitted a rich man with a civic conscience.”

   “Edessa lies just under 300 kilometres north of Palmyra as the crow flies, and its Aramaic dialect, known today as Syriac, is closely related to that of Palmyra.”

2. A city, the county seat of Marion County, Missouri, United States.
3. A census-designated place, the county seat of Fluvanna County, Virginia, United States.
4. A number of townships in the United States, listed under Palmyra Township.

noun

1. A palm (Borassus flabellifer) with straight black upright trunk and palmate leaves, whose wood, fruit, and roots can be used for many purposes.