Yesterday my daughter, who was visiting me, asked me to Google the word of the song "My Grandfather's Clock" so that she could sing it to my granddaughter. I remarked that I'd known all the words of the song for 50 years and could have written it out for her, but since it was actually quicker to Google and print I did so. As usual in these cases, not every single word conformed with the version I learnt, but one in particular really threw me. When I learnt the song, the last verse contained the lines
"And we knew that his spirit was poised for its flight, That the hour of departure had come." The first version I got from Google had "pluming his flight" instead of "poised for its flight". I was mildly baffled and I looked further. I found versions with "pluming for flight", "pluming its flight" and even "plumbing in flight".
Main Entry: 2plume Function: transitive verb Inflected Form(s): plumed; plum·ing
1 a : to provide or deck with feathers b : to array showily 2 : to indulge (oneself) in pride with an obvious or vain display ofself-satisfaction
3 of a bird a : to preen and arrange the feathers of (itself) b : topreen and arrange (feathers) The Concise Oxford adds two nouns, which in principle might be verbed: 2 a long spreading cloud of smoke or vapour. 3 (Geology) a column of magma rising by convection in the earth'smantle. With considerable contortion I could just about get my mind around plume as in preen in the sense of preparing the feathers for flight. It seems pretty contrived, and I can't see it making much sense to the average child listening to the song. I assumed the "plumbing" version was a mistake, but at this stage I'd believe anything.
Am I missing something obvious? And does anyone else remember the words as I do?