different between plume vs plumelet

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?plu?m/, (obsolete) /?plju?m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?plum/
• Rhymes: -u?m

Etymology 1

From Late Middle English plum, plume (“feather; plumage”), from Anglo-Norman plum, plume and Middle French, Old French plume, plome (“plumage; down used for stuffing pillows, etc.; pen, quill”) (modern French plume (“feather; pen, quill; pen nib; (figurative) writer”)), and directly from its etymon Latin pl?ma (“feather; plumage; down”) (compare Late Latin pl?ma (“pen, quill”)), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plewk- (“to fly; to flow; to run; to flap with hands; to splash”). The English word is a doublet of pluma.

Noun

plume (plural plumes)

1. (archaic, literary and poetic) A feather of a bird, especially a large or showy one used as a decoration.
2. (archaic, literary and poetic) A cluster of feathers worn as an ornament, especially on a helmet; a hackle.
3. (figuratively) A token of honour or prowess; that on which one prides oneself; a prize or reward.

   Synonym: feather in one's cap
4. The vane (“flattened, web-like part”) of a feather, especially when on a quill pen or the fletching of an arrow.
5. Short for plume moth (“a small, slender moth of the family Pterophoridae”).
6. Things resembling a feather.
   1. A cloud formed by a dispersed substance fanning out or spreading.

   2. An upward spray of mist or water.
   3. (astronomy) An arc of glowing material (chiefly gases) erupting from the surface of a star.
   4. (botany) A large and flexible panicle of an inflorescence resembling a feather, such as is seen in certain large ornamental grasses.
   5. (geology) Short for mantle plume (“an upwelling of abnormally hot molten material from the Earth's mantle which spreads sideways when it reaches the lithosphere”).
   6. (zoology) A body part resembling a feather.
      1. The furry tail of certain dog breeds (such as the Samoyed) that curls over their backs or stands erect.
      2. More fully gill plume: a feathery gill of some crustaceans and molluscs.

Derived terms

Related terms

• plumage
• plumaged

Translations

Etymology 2

Sense 1 (“to adorn, cover, or furnish with feathers or plumes”) is derived from Anglo-Norman plumer (“to cover with or provide with feathers”), or its etymon Latin pl?m?re, the present active infinitive of pl?m? (“to grow feathers, to fledge; to cover with feathers, to feather; to embroider with a feathery pattern”) (and compare Late Latin pl?m? (“to attach feathers to arrows; of a hawk: to pluck the feathers from prey; (figurative) to celebrate, praise”)), from pl?ma (“feather; plumage; down”) (see etymology 1) + -? (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

Senses 2–4 (“to arrange and preen the feathers of; to congratulate (oneself) proudly; to strip of feathers”) are from Late Middle English plumen (“to remove the feathers from a bird; of a hawk: to pluck the feathers or the head from prey”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Middle French plumer (“to remove the feathers from a bird; to pull out (hairs, especially from a moustache); to rob”), from pl?ma (see etymology 1).

Sense 5 (“to fan out or spread in a cloud”) is derived from plume (noun).

Verb

plume (third-person singular simple present plumes, present participle pluming, simple past and past participle plumed)

1. (transitive, also figuratively) To adorn, cover, or furnish with feathers or plumes, or as if with feathers or plumes.

   Synonyms: feather, fledge

2. (transitive, reflexive) Chiefly of a bird: to arrange and preen the feathers of, specifically in preparation for flight; hence (figuratively), to prepare for (something).
3. (transitive, reflexive, by extension) To congratulate (oneself) proudly, especially concerning something unimportant or when taking credit for another person's effort; to self-congratulate.

   • pride and plume himself in his Deformities
4. (transitive, archaic) To strip (a bird) of feathers; to pluck.

   Synonym: unplume

   • the king cared not to plume his nobility

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

   1. (by extension) To peel, to strip completely; to pillage; also, to deprive of power.
   2. (falconry, obsolete) Of a hawk: to pluck the feathers from prey.
5. (intransitive) Of a dispersed substance such as dust or smoke: to fan out or spread in a cloud.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• plumed (adjective)
• unplume
• unplumed (adjective)

Translations

References

Further reading

• mantle plume on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• plume (feather) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• plume (fluid dynamics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

French

Etymology

From Old French plume, from Latin pl?ma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /plym/

Noun

plume f (plural plumes)

1. feather
2. quill
3. nib, the writing end of a fountain pen or a dip pen
4. (dated) writer, penman

Derived terms

Descendants

• English: plume
• Rade: plim

Verb

plume

1. inflection of plumer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative
   2. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   3. second-person singular imperative

Further reading

• plume on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr
• “plume” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin pl?ma.

Noun

plume f (plural plumis)

1. plume, feather

   Synonym: pene

Old English

Alternative forms

• pl?me

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *pl?m?, from Latin pr?num.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?plu?.me/

Noun

pl?me f

1. plum

Declension

Derived terms

Descendants

• Middle English: plomme, ploume, plum, plumbe, plumme, plowme, ploumme, plome
  • English: plum (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: ploom, ploum
• ? Irish: pluma

Old French

Etymology

From Latin pl?ma.

Noun

plume f (oblique plural plumes, nominative singular plume, nominative plural plumes)

1. feather; plume

Descendants

English

Etymology

plume +? -let

Noun

plumelet (plural plumelets)

1. A small plume.

   When rosy plumelets tuft the larch.

References

• plumelet in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.