pinion

The word 'pinion' entered English in the late 14th century from the Old French 'pignon', meaning 'wing feather, wing, battlement'. This French term derived from the Latin 'pinna', which originally meant 'feather, wing' and also came to mean 'battlement' from the resemblance of battlements to a row of feathers. The Latin 'pinna' is itself of uncertain origin, possibly related to 'penna' (feather). The mechanical sense of a small cogwheel, first recorded in the 17th century, developed from the French 'pignon', which had also come to mean 'cogwheel', likely by metaphorical extension from the idea of a projecting point or tooth resembling a feather's barb. The verb meaning 'to disable by binding the arms' (late 16th century) derives directly from the noun, based on the practice of clipping a bird's primary flight feathers to prevent flight.

Structure: pinion (Unsegmentable) The word is a simplex loanword from French. It is not productively segmented into smaller, meaningful morphemes in modern English.