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)

• (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^[1], London: Jonathan Cape, 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.