Featherings

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A collection or group of feathers used for decoration or adornment
2. The process of decorating with feathers or applying feather-like designs
3. Ornamental features resembling or made up of fine, light structures similar to feathers

Etymology: "Featherings" is the plural of "feathering," a noun formed from "feather" plus the suffix "-ing," which in this sense turns a material or collective into a noun for the thing made of it. "Feather" itself is an old inherited word in English, traceable to Old English "feðer," and it shares its ancestry with words like "father" in the sense of the relatives' link, though the two are not related in meaning. The noun "feathering" first appeared in English with the basic sense of a covering of feathers or the act of fitting something with feathers, and the decorative collective sense grew naturally from that. Its plural "featherings" is the less common form, used when referring to several distinct sets of feathers or several decorative arrangements rather than feathers in general.

Synonyms: plumage, feathers