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| | QUILL - LoveToKnow Article on QUILL (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08) |
 | | , a term applied to the bare, hard, hollow tube of the feather of a bird, also to the large flight feathers or remiges, and especially to the strong feathers of the goose, swan, or crow used in the making of quill pens (see FEATHER and PEN). |
 | | The word is of obscure origin; a word with similar meaning, Kid, is found in German, and French has quille, ninepin, apparently connected with Ger. |
 | | Certain ancient stringed instruments were played with a plectrum or plucker made of the quill of a birds feather, and the word has thus been used of a plectrum made of other material and differing in shape, and also of an analogous object for striking the strings in the harpskhord, spinet or virginal. |
| www.1911ency.org /Q/QU/QUILL.htm (189 words) |
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