Posted by Robert Hill on February 13, 2009 at 19:15:47 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: Black swans in England? posted by Ed Kiser on February 13, 2009 at 18:04:38:
'Pinion' and 'pen' are two more examples of words with many meanings.
To pinion somebody can mean to prevent them from moving by holding their arms - no doubt this usage comes from pinioning birds by clipping their wings. In addition pinion as a noun can just mean a wing, not just in Latin but in English too. And of course it can be a small gear wheel.
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One of the many meanings of 'pen' is a female swan. The corresponding word for a male swan is 'cob'. According to my dictionary it's not known whether or not this is connected to pen meaning feather, from which comes pen as a writing instrument.