How did lotus come to mean hold or carry?
Note that in today's Putonghua 荷 meaning &quot;lotus&quot; is hé (the 2nd tone) and meaning &quot;carry&quot; is hè (the 4th tone).

字源 (the image above) and a couple of other dictionaries say that the verb meaning &quot;carry&quot; was originally written as 何. Later 何 was borrowed to write the word meaning &quot;what&quot;, so the written form of the verb meaning &quot;carry&quot; was changed into 荷 to avoid confusion.
So it is a chain of borrowing!