plumage

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English plumage,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French plumage (“feathers of a bird collectively”), also plomage,^[4][5] recorded in Old French from 1284,^[4][6] from plume (“feather”) and the suffix -age,^[4][7][3][8] and the French noun, the source of plume, is from Latin plūma (“small soft feather, down”).^[9][3][10] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *pleus- (“to pluck; a feather, fleece”), the source also of fleece.^[6] The word has parallels in Spanish plumaje, Portuguese plumagem and Italian piumaggio, the last probably from French.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The feathers of a bird, collectively: about 1395, in Chaucer's Squire's Tale, of a falcon (As wel of plumage as of gentillesse).^[4][2][7] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century,^[6] and Hoad and Collins to the 15th.^[11][10]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer used the word only that once.^[12] In falconry from about 1450 to 1614 it meant the feathers given to a hawk to clean its gorge.^[4][13][2] The sense of a bunch of feathers as an ornament (from 1565) was probably an English development, not paralleled in French until later.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "feathers; suit of feathers".^[14] The figurative use, for a person's distinctive or showy clothing and then for outward appearance generally, appears in 1707, in a translation of Morvan de Bellegarde;^[4] the OED notes a French use going back to La Fontaine's fable of the crow and the fox (1668).^[4] The Shorter Oxford records the phrase borrowed plumage.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1395 – the feathers of a bird.^[4][2][7]
• c. 1450 – in falconry, feathers fed to a hawk (obsolete by 1614).^[4][2]
• 1565 – a bunch of feathers as an ornament.^[4][13]
• 1707 – figurative, showy clothing; outward appearance.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The feathers covering a bird, often with reference to their colour or pattern: The male's bright plumage fades in autumn.^[10][3][4]
2. Showy or ceremonial dress; outward appearance.^[3][4]
3. (now rare) A bunch or tuft of feathers worn as an ornament; a plume.^[4][13][3]
4. The feathery fins of some aquarium fishes, such as goldfish.^[3]
5. (falconry, obsolete, 1450–1614) Feathers given to a hawk to clean its gorge.^[4][13][2]

Word family

• plumaged

Related words

• deplume
• plumate
• plume
• plumelet
• plumose
• plumule
• plumy

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.