aftershaft

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 

View all »
Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

  1. In ornithology: A supplementary feather growing out of a feather; the hypoptilum. The after-shaft, when well developed, is like a duplicate in miniature of the main feather, from the stem of which it springs, at junction of calamus with rhachis, close by the umbilicus. Coues, Key to N. A. Birds, p. 84.
  2. The shaft of such a supplementary feather. Also called hyporachis.

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

Examples (0)

We're constantly adding new words to Wordnik, so please check back soon.

 

Tags

aftershaft hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 127 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. A transitive of the term hyporachis, coined by Nitzsch, who used it for the whole of a supplementary feather, as described below; and this usage is customary. Later Sundevall restricted hyporachis, and consequently aftershaft, to the shaft alone of such a feather, the whole of which he called hypoptilum.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

If you'd like to prod us on getting a pronunciation for this word, sign in (or sign up) and let us know.

Charts

We are still working on calculating this word's frequency.

Recently looked up

Kratzer · frabjous · Modernism · postmodernism · surmise

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

unicycle hockey · droopy drawers · turducken · cuddlefish · cuttlefish