pinion

Etymology 1

From Old French pignon, from Latin penna (“feather”).

noun

1. A wing.
   Press on! for it is godlike to unloose The spirit, and forget yourself in thought; Bending a pinion for the deeper sky, And, in the very fetters of your flesh, Mating with the pure essences of heaven! 1826, N. P. Willis, Poem delivered at the Departure of the Senior Class of Yale College
2. (ornithology) The joint of a bird's wing farthest from the body.
3. (ornithology) Any of the outermost primary feathers on a bird's wing.
4. A moth of the genus Lithophane.

verb

1. To cut off the pinion of a bird’s wing, or otherwise disable or bind its wings, in order to prevent it from flying.
   They that meane to fatte Pigions…some…do softly tie their Legges:…some vse onely to pinion them. 1577, Konrad Heresbach, translated by Barnabe Googe, Foure Bookes of Husbandrie, book iv (1586), page 169
   When they are aboute fortnights olde (for they must bee driven noe longer) yow must watch where the henne useth to sitte on nights, and come when it beginneth to bee darke and throwe somethinge over the henne as shee broodeth them, then take and clippe every of theire right wings. Then when they are aboute moneths old, yow must come after the same manner and pinnion or cutte a joynte of every of theire right winges. 1641–2, Henry Best (author), Donald Woodward (editor), The Farming and Memorandum Books of Henry Best of Elmswell, 1642: With a Glossary and Linguistic Commentary by Peter McClure, Oxford University Press/British Academy (1984) (10) (13), page 115
   The Swanners gette up the younge swannes about midsummer [24 June] and footemarke them for the owners, and then doe they allsoe pinnion them, cuttinge a joynte of theire right winges, and then att Michaellmasse [29 Sept.] doe they bringe them hoame, or else bringe hoame some, and leave the rest att some of the mills and wee sende for them. ibidem, page 129
   Suppoſe, thou Fortune could to tameneſs bring, / And clip or pinion her wing; / Suppoſe thou could’ſt on Fate ſo far prevail / As not to cut off thy Entail. 1665–1667, Abraham Cowley, The Works of Mʳ Abraham Cowley (fifth edition, 1678), “Several Diſcourſes by way of Eſſays, in Verſe and Proſe”, essay 9: ‘The ſhortneſs of Life and uncertainty of Riches’, closing verses, verse 3 (page 138)
   The two old ducks…being pinioned, could not fly away. 1727, Peter Longueville, Philip Quarll, published 1816, page 67
   They…should have been pinioned at the first joint of the wing. 1849, Daniel Jay Browne, The American Poultry Yard, published 1855, page 242
2. To bind the arms of someone, so as to deprive him of their use; to disable by so binding.
   “[…] Captain Markam had been found lying half-insensible, gagged and bound, on the floor of the sitting-room, his hands and feet tightly pinioned, and a woollen comforter wound closely round his mouth and neck ; whilst Mrs. Markham's jewel-case, containing valuable jewellery and the secret plans of Port Arthur, had disappeared. […]” 1905, Baroness Emmuska Orczy, chapter 1, in The Fate of the Artemis
   Pinioning its extremities with the edge of the towel, she crushed off its offensive and defensive weapons with a splinter from the wall. The blowfly was her next victim, but an unexciting one. 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 168
   Nash pinioned his arms behind while Boland seized a long cabbage stump which was lying in the gutter. 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Macmillan Press Ltd, paperback, page 80
3. (transferred sense, figurative) To restrain; to limit.
   I am pinioned by a chain of reasoning! Why else do his four friends conspire to conceal […] 1999: Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow, scene 14

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French pignon.

noun

1. (mechanical engineering) The smallest gear in a gear train.
   1844, Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial A certain period elapses, and some unseen mysterious principle again sets in motion the magic pinions and the wizard wheels.
   The usual front sprocket has teeth, which which mesh into a pinion on a shaft that carries power to the wheel through a pair of pinions at the rear. 1898, Alexander Schwalbach, Julius Wilcox, “The Chainless Wheel”, in The Modern bicycle and its accessories; a complete reference book for rider, dealer, and maker, New York: The Commercial advertiser association, page 10
   The spiral bevel pinion has 19 teeth, a diametral pitch of 6.940 teeth/inch, a face width of 1.28 inch, a bevel angle of 15 degrees 16 minutes, and a spiral angle of 30 degrees left hand, clockwise. 2003, Spiral Bevel Pinion Crack Detection in a Helicopter Gearbox, page 5