The French word plume can mean feather, quill, or pen. These feathers are dyed and manipulated to enhance their appearance, as poultry feathers are naturally often dull in appearance compared to the feathers of wild birds.įeather derives from the Old English "feþer", which is of Germanic origin related to Dutch "veer" and German "Feder", from an Indo-European root shared by Sanskrit's "patra" meaning ‘wing’, Latin's "penna" meaning ‘feather’, and Greek's "pteron", "pterux" meaning ‘wing’.īecause of feathers being an integral part of quills, which were early pens used for writing, the word pen itself is derived from the Latin penna, meaning feather.
Today, feathers used in fashion and in military headdresses and clothes are obtained as a waste product of poultry farming, including chickens, geese, turkeys, pheasants, and ostriches.
Historically, the hunting of birds for decorative and ornamental feathers has endangered some species and helped to contribute to the extinction of others. Feathers of large birds (most often geese) have been and are used to make quill pens. Goose and eider down have great loft, the ability to expand from a compressed, stored state to trap large amounts of compartmentalized, insulating air. They are also used as filling for winter clothing and outdoor bedding, such as quilted coats and sleeping bags. Feathers are both soft and excellent at trapping heat thus, they are sometimes used in high-class bedding, especially pillows, blankets, and mattresses. įeathers have a number of utilitarian, cultural, and religious uses. Plumology (or plumage science) is the name for the science that is associated with the study of feathers. In addition, coloration helps in communication and protection. They aid in flight, thermal insulation, and waterproofing. Īlthough feathers cover most of the bird's body, they arise only from certain well-defined tracts on the skin. They are among the characteristics that distinguish the extant birds from other living groups.
They are the most complex integumentary structures found in vertebrates and a premier example of a complex evolutionary novelty. Feathers are epidermal growths that form a distinctive outer covering, or plumage, on both avian (bird) and some non-avian dinosaurs and other archosaurs.
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