feather

Pronunciation

• UK: /ˈfɛðə/^[1]
• US: /ˈfɛðɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fether,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English feðer (“a feather; a pen; in the plural, wings”),^[2][5][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *feþrō.^[7][8][6][9] It is cognate with Old Saxon fethara, Old Frisian fethere, Middle Dutch vedere, Dutch veder and veer, Old High German fedara, German Feder, Old Norse fjǫðr, Swedish fjäder and Danish fjeder.^{[5][10][3][11]} The Germanic noun comes from a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to rush, to fly”),^[2][4][9][5] which Kroonen writes *peth₂-,^[7] and is related outside Germanic to Ancient Greek πτερόν (pterón, “wing, feather”) and πέτομαι (pétomai, “to fly”), Latin penna (“feather”), the source of pen, petō (“to go to, rush at, seek”) and Hittite pattar (“wing, feather”).^{[10][7][8][6][9]} In Middle English it was partly confused with the related Old English fiðere (“wing”).^[5][7] The verb is from gefiðrian (“to furnish with feathers or wings”), which from the 14th century was remade on the noun.^[5][11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the light growths of horny shaft and vanes that cover a bird: Old English, about 725 in Genesis A according to Barnhart,^[10] first in The Phoenix in the OED.^[5] Old English also used it for a pen, and in the plural for wings.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The plural sense "wings" lasted until about 1616, and "pen" until 1784.^[5] Feathers as a detached object and a material go back to Old English, and the compound featherbed to about 1000, in Ælfric's glossary.^[5][10] From early Middle English the word named the feather fitted to an arrow, and the verb meant to fit an arrow with one (about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle).^[5][11][2] Plumage came to stand for a person's attire, and then the bird's kind: birds of a feather, creatures of one kind, is recorded from the 1580s,^[5][11][2] and in fine feather, in good spirits, from 1592, in Nashe.^[5] Weekley traces such allusive uses to cockfighting, in which a white feather in the tail was supposed to mark a cowardly bird.^[12] To feather one's nest, enrich oneself, is recorded from 1583 in the OED,^[5][2] but Weekley quotes it from Respublica (about 1553).^[12] A feather in one's cap is from 1734, and tar and feather from before 1777.^[2][5] In rowing the verb meant to turn the oar blade flat as it leaves the water (1740), and in woodworking to cut down to a thin edge (1782);^[2] it was later used of propeller blades too.^[11] In Suffolk dialect to see neither feather nor bone of something was to see no trace of it,^[13] and in 19th-century British thieves' slang feather was a person's hair.^[14] Johnson (1755) gave first "the plume of birds".^[15]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English feðer, in Genesis A.^[10]
• c. 1000 – featherbed.^[10]
• c. 1225 – verb, to fit an arrow with a feather.^[5][2]
• 1280 – the compound fethermongere.^[10]
• 1483 – verb, to clothe or adorn with feathers.^[5][2]
• 1581 – of a feather, of the same kind.^[5]
• 1583 – to feather one's nest.^[5]
• 1592 – in fine feather.^[5]
• 1734 – a feather in one's cap.^[2]
• 1740 – in rowing, to feather an oar.^[2]
• 1782 – in woodworking, to cut to a thin edge.^[2]
• 1838 – featherweight, in Dickens's Oliver Twist.^[10]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. One of the light structures, each with a hollow central shaft and vanes of barbs, that form a bird's plumage: A gull's feather lay on the sand.
2. The feather or substitute fitted to an arrow to steady its flight.
3. Something like a feather, such as a tuft of hair, or the long hair on the legs of a horse or dog.
4. Kind or sort, as in birds of a feather.
5. Condition or spirits: in fine feather.
6. A strip or tongue of wood fitted into a groove.

Verb

1. To cover, fit or adorn with feathers.
2. In rowing, to turn an oar so that the blade passes edgeways through the air; to turn propeller blades to offer least resistance.
3. To move, float or grow like feathers.
4. feather one's nest: to enrich oneself, especially dishonestly.

Word family

• feathered
• featherless
• featherlessness
• featherlike

Related words

• pen
• pterodactyl

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.