Plumbage

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The entire covering of feathers that grows over a bird's body and helps it fly, keep warm and display colour
2. The collective feathering of a bird, including its colours and patterns, as an archaic or variant term for plumage
3. Feathers as a whole on a bird, the layered coat that gives it insulation, flight capability and visual appearance

Etymology: Plumbage is a rare variant of plumage, the collective term for a bird's feathers. Its root is the Latin "pluma", meaning feather or soft down, which gave Old French "plume", the source of English "plume". The suffix "-age" came into Old French as a way to make nouns meaning a collection or quantity of something. Plumage therefore names the whole covering of feathers rather than any single one. The "b" in plumbage is an unusual spelling choice that does not change the meaning.