- barb (v.)
- late 15c., "to clip, mow;" see barb (n.). Meaning "to fit or furnish with barbs" is from 1610s. Related: Barbed; barbing.
- penniform
- "Resembling a feather; specifically (of a muscle) having fibres attached to a tendon like the barbs of a feather to the rachis", Early 18th cent. From post-classical Latin penniformis (G. A. Borelli De Motu Animalium I. xv. 123) from penna feather + -formis.