feather

What it means

1. A branching, hair-like structure that grows on the bodies of birds, used for flight, swimming, protection and display.

   Nesting birds pluck some of their own feathers to line the nest, but feather plucking in pet birds is entirely different.

   2000, C. J. Puotinen, The Encyclopedia of Natural Pet Care, page 362

   2 more examples

   Notice, too, that the shaft is not straight, but bent so that the upper surface of the feather is convex, and the lower concave.

   1873, W. K. Brooks, “A Feather”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume IV, page 687

   Big fellows they were, all of them, their barbaric headdresses and grotesquely painted faces, together with their many metal ornaments and gorgeously coloured feathers, adding to their wild, fierce appearance.

   1914, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter V, in The Beasts of Tarzan

2. Long hair on the lower legs of a dog or horse, especially a draft horse, notably the Clydesdale breed. Narrowly only the rear hair.

   Synonyms: feathers, feathering, horsefeathers · Antonyms: spats

3. One of the fins or wings on the shaft of an arrow.

In a sentence

Notice, too, that the shaft is not straight, but bent so that the upper surface of the feather is convex, and the lower concave.

1873, W. K. Brooks, “A Feather”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume IV, page 687

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*péth₂r̥“feather, wing”
2. Proto-Germanic*feþrō
3. Proto-West Germanic*feþru
4. Old Englishfeþer
5. Middle Englishfethere
6. Englishfeather

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).