feather

feather · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*péth₂r̥“feather, wing”
2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*feþrō
3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*feþru
4. Old English · inherited fromfeþer
5. Middle English · inherited fromfethere
6. English todayfeather

From Middle English fethere, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic *feþru, from Proto-Germanic *feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European *péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from *peth₂- (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fear (“feather”), Cimbrian bèdara, fòdara (“pillowcase”), vèdara (“feather”), Dutch veder, veer (“feather”), German Feder (“feather”), German Low German Fedder (“feather”), Luxembourgish Fieder (“feather”), Vilamovian faoder (“feather”), Yiddish פֿעדער (feder, “feather”), Danish fjeder, fjer (“feather”), Faroese fjøður (“feather”), Icelandic fjöður (“feather”), Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør (“feather”), Norwegian Nynorsk fjøder, fjør (“feather”), Swedish fjäder (“feather”). Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), Albanian shpend (“bird”), Latin penna (“feather”), Old Armenian թիռ (tʻiṙ, “flight”). The sense correlated with splines and keys (noun sense 4) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (noun sense 3).

Feather · proper noun²

* As an occupational English name, from feather, used to refer to quilt makers, feather traders, etc. * As an Americanized German surname, from Feder.

Words from the same roots