plume

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English plume,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French plume (“soft feather, down”), also Anglo-Norman plume,^[4][5][6][3] and directly borrowed from Latin plūma (“small soft feather, down”).^[4][5][6] The OED takes the Latin word as borrowed first, already in Old English, where it appears in a translation of Defensor's “Liber Scintillarum” and in the compound Old English plūmfeðer (“down feather”), and then reinforced by, or taken again from, French.^[6][7] The French word is recorded from about 1140, for down used to fill duvets and pillows,^[6] and Anglo-Norman had it from about 1165 for a feather, plumage and a feather bed.^[8] The OED calls the Latin word of unknown origin;^[6] Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *pleus- (“to pluck; a feather, fleece”), the source of flēos (“fleece”),^[4] and Klein and Ayto also connect it with fleece,^[9][10] while Skeat thought it allied to fly.^[11] Partridge compares Lithuanian plũnksna (“feather”).^[12] The Latin word gave piuma, pluma and pluma,^[10][6] and was borrowed early into other Germanic languages, as plūme (now pluim) and pflūma (now Flaum), probably because of the trade in goose down from northern Europe since Roman times.^[6][13] The verb is partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman plumer (“to cover with feathers”) and Latin plūmō (“to cover with feathers”), partly borrowed from Middle French plumer (“to pluck a bird”), and partly formed from the noun.^[6][14][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

A feather, especially a large or showy one: about 1399, in Mum and the Sothsegger,^[5][6] or in the late 14th century according to Etymonline.^[4] In Old English the word meant feathers collectively or down, a sense now rare and poetic.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1530 a plume was an ornamental feather, bunch of feathers or tuft of horsehair worn on a helmet or hat, often as a mark of rank.^[6][15] Figurative uses followed: an ostentatious display from 1580, then, from 1605, a mark of honour or a source of pride, like a feather in one's cap.^[6] Borrowed plumes alludes to the fable of the jackdaw that dressed in a peacock's feathers.^[16][14] From the late 16th century the word was used for various things that look like a feather,^[13] such as the feathery appendage of a seed (1578) and the gill of a crustacean or mollusc (1834).^[6] From 1878 it also denoted a long trail of smoke and the like.^[4] The verb first belonged to falconry, of a hawk plucking at the feathers of its prey, before 1450;^[6] Barnhart dates it to about 1399.^[5] The sense of adorning with plumes is recorded from 1449,^[6] and of a bird preening itself from 1486.^[6] The reflexive plume oneself, to congratulate oneself, is recorded from 1643, in Browne's Religio Medici,^[6][5] and Weekley traces it to the image of a bird preening.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1399 – a feather, especially a large or showy one.^[5][6]
• before 1450 – verb, of a hawk, to pluck at the feathers of its prey (obsolete by 1668).^[6] Barnhart dates the verb to about 1399.^[5]
• 1449 – to adorn or cover with plumes.^[6]
• 1486 – of a bird, to preen itself.^[6]
• 1530 – an ornamental feather or tuft worn on a helmet or hat.^[6]
• 1578 – in botany, a feathery appendage of a seed.^[6]
• 1605 – a mark of honour or distinction.^[6]
• 1643 – plume oneself, to congratulate oneself.^[6][5]
• 1878 – a long trail of smoke or the like.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A feather, especially a large or showy one: a hat trimmed with a peacock plume.^[17][15][6]
2. A feather, cluster of feathers or tuft of hair worn as an ornament or a sign of rank, as on a helmet.^[17][15][6]
3. A column or trail of something rising or spreading out, such as smoke or steam: A plume of steam rose from the kettle.^[17][4]
4. (biology) A feathery part, such as the structure on some seeds that helps the wind carry them.^[17][6]
5. A mark of honour or distinction.^[6]

Verb

1. To provide or decorate with plumes.^[15][6]
2. plume oneself: to congratulate oneself, especially on something trivial.^[6][15]
3. Of a bird, to preen its feathers.^[6][4]
4. To rise or spread out in a plume: smoke pluming from the factory chimneys.^[15]
5. (obsolete) Of a hawk, to pluck the feathers of its prey.^[15][6][14]

Word family

• plumeless
• plumelike
• displume
• plumelet
• plumy
• plumed
• replume
• unplumed

Related words

• plumage
• fleece
• plumule
• plumose
• deplume
• nom de plume

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
13. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
17. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins