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filoplume love

filoplume

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A hairlike feather having few or no barbs, usually located between contour feathers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In ornithology, a thread-feather; a thread-like or hair-like feather, with a very slender stem, lacking webs in most or all of its length.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) A hairlike feather; a father with a slender scape and without a web in most or all of its length.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun zoology A hair-like feather; a feather with a slender scape and without a web in most or all of its length.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin fīlum, thread; see gwhī- in Indo-European roots + plume.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin filum a thread + pluma a soft feather.

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Examples

  • Clinging to her hand below the wrist is a filoplume, white and weightless.

    Futurismic 2009

  • In the bedroom after a steam that wasn't nearly long enough, she ran a hand along her pillow, where one slender filoplume rested.

    Futurismic 2009

  • NEW FICTION: AWAKENING IN SIX PARTS by Karen M Roberts: In the bedroom after a steam that wasn't nearly long enough, she ran a hand along her pillow, where one slender filoplume rested.

    Futurismic 2009

  • NEW FICTION: AWAKENING IN SIX PARTS by Karen M Roberts: In the bedroom after a steam that wasn't nearly long enough, she ran a hand along her pillow, where one slender filoplume rested.

    Futurismic 2009

  • Lowering her filoplume lashes until they almost swept the blush from her cheeks, she said ever so gravely, "To be with you.

    Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates Robbins, Tom 2000

  • Lowering her filoplume lashes until they almost swept the blush from her cheeks, she said ever so gravely, "To be with you.

    Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates Robbins, Tom 2000

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Comments

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  • reesetee commented on the word filoplume

    A specialized, hairlike feather having a slender shaft with few or no barbs.

    April 11, 2008

  • mollusque commented on the word filoplume

    Thanks, reesetee! (See filoplumate).

    April 11, 2008

  • reesetee commented on the word filoplume

    You're welcome! Thought you'd like this one. :-)

    April 12, 2008

  • fbharjo commented on the word filoplume

    slenderscape

    August 25, 2009

  • MaryW commented on the word filoplume

    There are three types of feather. The most abundant and obvious are the contour feathers: these include the long, strong wing and tail feathers, but also the short feathers that cover the body and rictal bristles around the mouth. The second type are fluffy, down feathers, lying out of sight under the contour feathers close to the body. Their role is to act primarily as insulation . . . . The third type of feather is much less familiar and you are likely only to have noticed them if you have ever plucked a bird like a chicken or a pigeon. Once all the contour and down feathers have been removed, what's left are the filoplumes, fine hair-like feathers sparsely dotted over the entire body surface and always rooted close to the base of a contour feather.
    Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird (New York: Walker & Co., 2012), p. 83-84.

    May 30, 2016