Word: tail Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *taglą Proto-West Germanic *tagl Old English tæġl Middle English tayl English tail From Middle English tail, tayl, teil, from Old English tæġl (“tail”), from Proto-West Germanic *tagl, from Proto-Germanic *taglą (“hair, fiber; hair of a tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *doḱ- (“hair of the tail”), from Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, fray, shred”). Cognate with Scots tail (“tail”), Saterland Frisian Tail (“tail, end”), West Frisian teil (“tail”), Dutch teil (“tail, haulm, blade”), Low German Tagel (“twisted scourge, whip of thongs and ropes; end of a rope”), German Zagel (“tail”), dialectal Danish tavl (“hair of the tail”), Swedish tagel (“hair of the tail, horsehair”), Norwegian tagl (“tail”), Icelandic tagl (“tail, horsetail, ponytail”), Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌲𐌻 (tagl, “hair”). In some senses, apparently by a generalization of the usual opposition between head and tail. Pronunciation: /ˈteɪ̯l/, [ˈtʰeɪ̯l], /ˈteːl/, /ˈtæ̝ɪ̯l/, /ˈtæ̝ɪ̯u/ 1. The caudal appendage of an animal that is attached to their posterior and near the anus or cloaca. Example: Most primates have a tail and fangs. 2. An object or part of an object resembling a tail in shape, such as the thongs on a cat-o'-nine-tails; a strand of material hanging from something. Example: Duretus writes a great praise of the Distill'd waters of those tails that hang on Willow Trees. Example: Using a thin tapestry needle, weave the warp tails back into the fabric in a warpwise direction and trim off the excess. 3. The back, last, lower, or inferior part of anything. 4. The feathers attached to the pygostyle of a bird. 5. The tail-end of any object. Example: And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the taile, […] Example: It was soon over, and the unmoved magistrate calmly ordained that Deborah Williams, Elizabeth and Faith Wilson, should be tied to a cart's tail, and thus led through the principal streets of the town, receiving during their progress twenty lashes each, well laid on, upon the naked back. 6. The rear structure of an aircraft, the empennage. 7. The visible stream of dust and gases blown from a comet by the solar wind. 8. The latter part of a time period or event, or (collectively) persons or objects represented in this part. 9. The part of a distribution most distant from the mode. Example: long tail 10. One who surreptitiously follows another. 11. The lower order of batsmen in the batting order, usually specialist bowlers. 12. The lower loop of the letters in the Roman alphabet, as in g, q or y. 13. The side of a coin not bearing the head; normally the side on which the monetary value of the coin is indicated; the reverse. Labels: in-plural 14. All the last terms of a sequence, from some term on. Example: A sequence (a#95;n) is said to be frequently 0 if every tail of the sequence contains 0. 15. The buttocks or backside. Labels: US, colloquial Example: By Goddis sydes, syns I her thyder broughte, / She hath gote me more money with her tayle / Than hath some shyppe that into Bordews sayle. Example: They were wont to wipe their tailes [translating cul] (this vaine superstition of words must be left unto women) with a sponge, and that's the reason why Spongia in Latine is counted an obscene word[…]. 16. The penis of a person or animal. Labels: slang 17. Sexual intercourse. Labels: slang, uncountable Example: I'm gonna get me some tail tonight. Example: “Innarested in a little tail t’night?” “Me?” I said. Which was a very dumb answer, but it’s quite embarrassing when somebody comes right up and asks you a question like that. 18. The stern; the back of the kayak. 19. A train or company of attendants; a retinue. Example: Ah! if you Saxon Duinhé-wassal (English gentleman) saw but the chief with his tail on. […] that is, with all his usual followers 20. The distal tendon of a muscle. 21. A filamentous projection on the tornal section of each hind wing of certain butterflies. 22. A downy or feathery appendage of certain achens, formed of the permanent elongated style. 23. A portion of an incision, at its beginning or end, which does not go through the whole thickness of the skin, and is more painful than a complete incision; called also tailing. 24. One of the strips at the end of a bandage formed by splitting the bandage one or more times. 25. A rope spliced to the strap of a block, by which it may be lashed to anything. 26. The part of a note which runs perpendicularly upward or downward from the head; the stem. 27. A tailing. 28. The bottom or lower portion of a member or part such as a slate or tile. 29. A tailcoat. Labels: colloquial, dated 30. Synonym of pigtail (“a short length of twisted electrical wire”). 31. The final fraction of a distillation run, typically containing impurities and fusel oils.