the.com/gill
a feather worn on the inside, breathing water nobody else can taste
means the paired organ on the side of a fish (and many aquatic animals) that extracts oxygen from water, or the thin radiating flaps on the underside of a mushroom cap.
from From Middle English 'gile' or 'gille,' likely borrowed from a Scandinavian source — compare Old Norse-derived dialect words and the Danish 'gælle,' Swedish 'gäl.' Older roots are often traced to a sense of 'jaw' or 'mouth,' which fits an organ tucked just behind the head. The mushroom 'gills' came later, named by simple resemblance — those delicate underside ribs look just like a fish's breathing slats.
- oxygen extraction
- pulls up to 80% of dissolved oxygen passing through
- countercurrent flow
- blood and water move opposite ways for max uptake
- axolotl flair
- some salamanders wear feathery gills externally, forever
- old measure
- a gill is also a quarter-pint of liquor
- surface area
- folded filaments cram huge area into tiny space
gill sans typeface — sans-serif font designed by eric gill in 1930, widely used in british signage and design
gill net fishing — fishing method using nets that trap fish by their gills, banned in many ocean fisheries since the 1980s