plume [OE] Plume and plumage [LME] come via French from Latin pluma ‘down, soft feather’. The Latin was borrowed at an early date into many Germanic languages, probably because from Roman times there was an important trade between these northern lands and the south in warm, soft goose down for stuffing pillows and duvets. From the late 16th century plume was used to describe various objects resembling a feather such as a plume of smoke.