different between plumage vs feathering

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: plo?om'?j, IPA^(key): /?plu?m?d?/
• (obsolete) enPR: plyo?om'?j, IPA^(key): /?plju?m?d?/
• Rhymes: -u?m?d?

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.
   • 1969, Monty Python, "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" (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.

   Synonym: (obsolete) pennage

2. Finery or elaborate dress.

Related terms

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ply.ma?/

Noun

plumage m (plural plumages)

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

   Synonyms: (falconry) pennage, plumée

Related terms

Further reading

• “plumage” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

English

Verb

feathering

1. present participle of feather

Noun

feathering (plural featherings)

1. Plumage.
2. A feathered texture.
   • 1834, Paxton's Magazine of Botany, and Register of Flowering Plants

     The whole flower is very small; the tube is faintly marked with lilac lines; the petals are concave, the three outer white, marked with three lines, the middle one narrow, without featherings, the outer ones broader, and neatly feathered […]

3. The fitting of feathers to arrows.
4. (architecture) An arrangement of small arcs or foils separated by projecting cusps, frequently forming the feather-like ornament on the inner mouldings of arches.