plumule
(ˈpluːmjʊl)
[ad. L. plūmula (see above), or perh. a. F. plumule.]
1. Bot. The rudimentary shoot, bud, or bunch of undeveloped leaves in a seed; the stem of the embryo plant.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Plume or Plumule,..a little member of the grain or seed of a plant; being that which in the growth of the plant becomes the stem, or trunk thereof. 1805 Knight in Phil. Trans. XCV. 262, I have never been able to satisfy myself that all the buds were eradicated without having destroyed the base of the plumule. 1875 Bennett & Dyer Sachs Bot. 560 The shoot which developes from the plumule becomes the primary stem of the plant. |
2. A little feather; spec. in Ornith., a down-feather. Also fig.
| 1847 Emerson Poems, Monadnoc Wks. (Bohn) I. 439 Fled the last plumule of the Dark, Pants up hither the spruce clerk. 1856–8 W. Clark Van der Hoeven's Zool. II. 380 Nostrils not covered by plumules. 1867 Tegetmeier Pigeons 8 The whole of the feathers of the pigeon are destitute of the small second feather or accessory plumule. |
b. transf. The plumose pappus of a seed.
| 1894 Crockett Lilac Sunbonnet 46 The plumules were blowing off freely now. |
3. Entom. a. A little plume-like organ or ornament. b. One of the peculiar obcordate scales found on the wings of certain lepidopterous insects, as Pieridæ.
| 1890 in Cent. Dict. 1895 Syd. Soc. Lex., Plumule,..2. Entom. A plume-like appendage. |