expressions - Why does 'pine feather period' signify the period in a woman's life when she blossoms?


A book titled Flappers 2 Rappers lists youth slang from the 1920s, and one of the terms it lists is "pine feather period." "Pine feather period" is defined as a period in a woman's life when she blossoms. I can't comprehend how "pine feather period" and a woman blossoming are related. I've researched the matter and still I haven't the least notion. Can anyone please help me understand better how "pine feather period" could be used to describe a young lady blossoming?



Answer



It's a long-defunct slang usage, resuscitated by OP's citation and the Chicago Artists' Coalition...



Pine Feather Period marks the first of three exhibitions for the sixteen artists selected to participate in Coalition Gallery, a one-year, juried, co-operative exhibition program for emerging, contemporary Chicago artists. In the spirit of a debut, Pine Feather Period, a 1920's flapper slang phrase, describes the period of a debutante's coming out.



As StoneyB points out, it's almost certainly a mistranscription of a trivially figurative usage...



pinfeather - a feather not fully developed; especially : a feather just emerging through the skin.



They're also (dialectally) sometimes penfeathers, but pine feather sounds unlikely to me.



Here's a 1904 example of the usage in approximately OP's sense...



You are now at the Pin-Feather Period, and Mother must teach you how to Fly. I have been giving a lot of Hard Thought to the Man Game [blah blah and I'll help you get successfully married off...]



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