fladry

fladry n.pl. a string of flags used to contain or exclude wild animals. Also attributively: fladry line, fladry barrier. Editorial Note: In English fladry tends to be used in the plural only, meaning you can have “some fladry,” very rarely “a fladry,” and never “some fladries.” In French, however, des fladries is acceptable. The word is also used in German and Italian. Etymological Note: According to Polish Scientific Publishers (Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, SA), fladry is the plural of flader, which comes from German. It is not specified which German word, but it’s probably related to flattern ‘to flutter.’ It is probably not related to the Polish flÄ…dry, the plural of flÄ…dra, which according to the Oxford PWN Polish English Dictionary (2002, Oxford University Press) means “1. flounder, flatfish; 2. slattern, slut.” (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)

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