What is a tail? Many meanings of the word

What is a tail? It would seem that the answer to this question is obvious - this is part of the body in animals and birds. But the fact is that this lexeme, being used in a figurative sense, has many shades of interpretation. About what is the tail in the literal and figurative meaning, will be discussed in the article.

Let's turn to the dictionary

There you can find many variations of the lexical meaning of the word “tail”. Here are some of them.

1. An anatomical term that refers to the appendage of the back of the body of the animal or the narrowed back.
2. In birds, this is an elongated bunch of feathers located on the posterior end of their body.
3. In root crops, for example, in radish, the surface of the root. As well as a thin lower end.

To understand the meaning of the word "tail", we turn to its use in a figurative sense.

Other values

In a figurative sense, the word under study means the following.

1. The extremity of some thin long object or some appendage attached to something specifically. For example, the tail of a kite.
2. One of the styles of hairstyle, which is long hair that is pulled by something on the back of the head.
3. In colloquial speech - a train, a back part of a hem at a long skirt or dress. As a rule, drags on the floor.
4. A stroke with a number or letter.
5. Something that extends or follows an object, while resembling a tail. For example, a trace from the movement of a ship on water.
6. The final rear of the detachment, columns, caravan, which are in motion.

Continuing to study what the tail is, we consider other figurative meanings of this token.

Other interpretations

Here are a few more meanings, figuratively.

1. A luminous, bright band left, for example, by a rocket or comet.
2. In an ironic context, one who follows someone relentlessly enters into his constant environment.
3. A string of people who stand behind each other, for example, a long line.
4. Part, the remainder of some outstanding work, some business. So called student debt.
5. In geology - a special term for empty rock, waste that remains in the process of mineral processing. As well as light, small pieces of ore carried away by water during washing.

However, the figurative meanings of the lexeme under study do not end there, let us also say about others.

A few more portable values

Among them are the following.

1. In criminal jargon, this is the name of an agent or secret police officer, speck, filer.
2. A special term for furriers, denoting a bunch of skins - marten, sable, squirrel.
3. A regional word meaning fish caught or prepared for consumption.
4. In technology - a device used to install the wings of a mill or a wind engine in the wind.
5. Outdated vernacular word, which is understood as gossip or gossip.

In conclusion, considering the question of what the tail is, we study the origin of the word.

Etymology

It came from the pre-Slavic language, from which also formed:

• Old Russian “tail” and “tails”, the latter in the meaning of “whip, punish”;
• Russian and Bulgarian "horsetail";
• Belarusian “tail”;
• Serbo-Croatian “hȍst”, which means “bunch”;
• Slovenian họ̑st - “forest”, “felled”, “thicket”, hvȏst - “bunch”, “tail” and hvọ̑šč, meaning “a bunch of straw”.

It is considered akin to the Armenian ẋot, whose meanings are “meadow”, “grass”, “pasture”.