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): /ˈpluːmɪdʒ/
• 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.
   • 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.

2. Finery or elaborate dress.

Synonyms

• pennage (obsolete)

Related terms

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

Translations

collection of feathers covering a bird’s body

• Burmese: အမွေး (my) (a.mwe:)
• Catalan: plomatge m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 羽毛 (zh) (yǔmáo)

• Czech: peří (cs) n
• Danish: fjerdragt c
• Dutch: pluimage (nl), gevederte (nl) n, verenkleed 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 f
• German: Gefieder (de) n, Vogelgefieder n, Federkleid (de) n, Federschmuck m
• Greek: φτέρωμα (el) n (ftéroma)
• Hungarian: toll (hu), tollazat (hu)
• Italian: piumaggio (it) m, piume (it) f pl

• Japanese: 羽毛 (ja) (うもう, umō)
• Korean: 깃털 (ko) (gitteol)
• Macedonian: перје n (perje)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: fjærdrakt m, f, fjørdrakt m, f, fjærham m, fjørham m

  Nynorsk: fjørdrakt f, fjørham m

• Polish: pierze (pl) n
• Portuguese: plumagem (pt) f
• Russian: опере́ние (ru) n (operénije)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: перје n

  Roman: perje (sh) n

• Spanish: plumaje (es) m
• Swedish: fjäderdräkt c
• Volapük: plümem (vo), bödaplümem, penaklot

finery or elaborate dress

• Dutch: vol ornaat

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ply.maʒ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

plumage m (plural plumages)

1. (ornithologie, nom collectif) plumage (a bird's feathers, collectively speaking)

Synonyms

• pennage (falconry)
• plumée

Related terms

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

Further reading

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