alula

• IPA^(key): /ˈæljuːlə/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

From Latin ala (“wing”) +‎ -ula.

alula (plural alulae or alulas)

1. (ornithology) A small projection of three or four feathers on the first digit of the wing on some birds. [from 18th c.]
   • 2021, Peter Cavanagh, “Preface”, in 100 Flying Birds: Photographing the Mechanics of Flight, →ISBN, page 10:

     More recently, the upturned wing tips of jet aircraft mimic the "fingers" of birds' terminal primary feathers, and the slotted leading edges of aircraft wings are directly copied from the alula ("thumb" wings) in birds.

   • 2017 June 28, Hanneke Meijer, The Guardian‎^[1]:

     On the wing, even the tiny “thumb feather” or alula can be seen.

• bastard wing

• alular

From Hawaiian ʻŌlulu.

alula (plural alulas)

1. A flower, a species of Hawaiian lobelioid

• vulcan palm
• cabbage on a stick
• Brighamia insignis / B. insignis / insignis

• Brighamia
• lobelioid
• Hawaiian lobelioid

Learned borrowing from New Latin alula.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑlulɑ/, [ˈɑ̝lulɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -ɑlulɑ
• Syllabification^(key): a‧lu‧la
• Hyphenation^(key): alu‧la

alula

1. (ornithology) alula

• pikkusiipi

• laula

alula f (plural alulas)

1. alula (feather)

From allocco (“tawny owl”) +‎ -erello (diminutive suffix).

Borrowed from Medieval Latin ālula, diminutive of Latin āla (“wing”). First attested in 1955.

• IPA^(key): /ˈa.lu.la/
• Rhymes: -alula
• Hyphenation: à‧lu‧la

alula f (plural alule)

1. (ornithology) bastard wing, alula
2. (entomology) alula, axillary lobe (broad lobe at the proximal posterior margin of the wing stalk of Diptera)
3. (aeronautics) leading-edge slot (aerodynamic feature of an aircraft's wing)

• ala

• alula in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana