Other forms: feathers
A feather is one of the light soft pieces a bird's coat is made of. A white feather, feathers everywhere, light as a feather.
They are made of keratin, the same protein as hair and nails, and they do insulation, waterproofing and flight with different shapes for each. Birds are the only living animals with them. A feather in your cap is an achievement, and a white feather was once handed out as an accusation of cowardice.
1nounfeatherOne of the light growths covering a bird.
“The pillow burst, and feathers flew all over the bedroom.”
feather is a body covering.
Old English fether comes from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning to fly. Pen, from Latin penna, comes from the same flying.
Proto-Indo-European
*peth₂-
Proto-Indo-European
*péth₂r̥ — feather, wing
Proto-Germanic
*feþrō
Proto-West Germanic
*feþru
Old English
feþer
Middle English
fethere
English, today
feather
Built from
From Middle English fethere, from Old English feþer, from Proto-West Germanic feþru, from Proto-Germanic feþrō, from Proto-Indo-European péth₂r̥ (“feather, wing”), from peth₂- (“to fly”). Cognate with West Frisian fear (“feather”), cim bèdara, fòdara (“pillowcase”), vèdara (“feather”), Dutch veder, veer (“feather”), German Feder (“feather”), German Low German Fedder (“feather”), lb Fieder (“feather”), wym faoder (“feather”), Yiddish פֿעדער (“feather”), Danish fjeder, fjer (“feather”), Faroese fjøður (“feather”), Icelandic fjöður (“feather”), Norwegian Bokmål fjær, fjør (“feather”), Norwegian Nynorsk fjøder, fjør (“feather”), Swedish fjäder (“feather”). Also Ancient Greek πέτομαι (“to fly”), Albanian shpend (“bird”), Latin penna (“feather”), xcl թիռ (“flight”). The sense correlated with splines and keys (spline or key or counterpart thereof) probably reflects analogy with the fletching sense (arrow stabilizer applied by fletching).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA