plumage

English

Etymology

From Old French plumage (14c.), itself from plume (“feather”) (from Latin plūma (“feather, down”), from a Proto-Indo-European base *plews- (“to pluck, a feather, fleece”) + -age.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: plo͞om'ĭj, IPA^(key): /ˈpluːmɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• (obsolete) enPR: plyo͞om'ĭj, IPA^(key): /ˈpljuːmɪd͡ʒ/
• Rhymes: -uːmɪdʒ

Noun

plumage (countable and uncountable, plural plumages)

1. (ornithology, collective noun) Layer or collection of feathers covering a bird’s body; feathers used ornamentally; feathering.

   Synonym: (obsolete) pennage

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 33:

     Somewhat like a heron she was, but stouter, and shorter of leg, and her beak shorter and thicker than the heron’s; and so long and delicate was her pale gray plumage that hard it was to say whether it were hair or feathers.

   • 1969, Monty Python, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, in Dead Parrot sketch:

     [Owner]: No no he's not dead, he's, he's restin'! Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
     [Mr. Praline]: The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead.

2. Finery or elaborate dress.

Derived terms

• alternate plumage
• basic plumage
• eclipse plumage
• nuptial plumage

Related terms

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

Translations

collection of feathers covering a bird’s body

Arabic: رَخْت m (raḵt) Bulgarian: перушина f (perušina), оперение n (operenie) Burmese: အမွေး (my) (a.mwe:) Catalan: plomatge m Chinese: Mandarin: 羽毛 (zh) (yǔmáo) Czech: peří (cs) n Danish: fjerdragt c Dutch: pluimage (nl) f, gevederte (nl) n, verenkleed (nl) n Esperanto: plumaro Finnish: höyhenpeite (fi), höyhenet (fi), höyhenpuku (fi) French: plumage (fr) m, plume (fr) f (pars pro toto), plumée (fr) f, pennage (fr) m (falconry) Galician: plumaxe (gl) f German: Gefieder (de) n, Vogelgefieder n, Federkleid (de) n, Federschmuck (de) m Greek: φτέρωμα (el) n (ftéroma) Hungarian: toll (hu), tollazat (hu) Icelandic: fjaðrir f pl, fjaðraskraut n Ido: plumaro (io) Irish: cluimhreach f, clúmh m Italian: piumaggio (it) m, piume (it) f pl Japanese: 羽毛 (ja) (うもう, umō) Korean: 깃털 (ko) (git'teol) Macedonian: перје n (perje) Norwegian: Bokmål: fjærdrakt m or f, fjørdrakt m or f, fjærham m, fjørham m Nynorsk: fjørdrakt f, fjørham m Ottoman Turkish: ریش (riş) Polish: pierze (pl) n Portuguese: plumagem (pt) f Russian: опере́ние (ru) n (operénije) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: пе̑рје n Roman: pȇrje (sh) n Spanish: plumaje (es) m Swedish: fjäderdräkt (sv) c Volapük: plümem (vo), bödaplümem, penaklot

finery or elaborate dress

Arabic: رَخْت m (raḵt) Bulgarian: премяна (bg) f (premjana) Dutch: vol ornaat Ottoman Turkish: ریش (riş)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ply.maʒ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʒ

Noun

plumage m (plural plumages)

1. (ornithology, collective noun) plumage (a bird's feathers, collectively speaking)

   Synonyms: (falconry) pennage, plumée

Related terms

• déplumer
• emplumer
• plumaison, plumée (déplumage)
• plumer

Further reading

• “plumage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.