dovetail

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English

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WOTD – 1 May 2023

Etymology

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A red turtle dove (Streptopelia tranquebarica) in flight, displaying the characteristic shape of its tail.
A dovetail or dovetail joint (noun sense 2.1). Each of the tenons which is shaped like a dove’s tail is also known as a “dovetail” (noun sense 2.2).
A drawing of a heraldic escutcheon (“shield”) featuring a fess (“horizontal central band”) outlined with dovetails (noun sense 3).

The noun is derived from dove +‎ tail.[1] The verb is derived from the noun.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dovetail (plural dovetails)

  1. The tail of a dove (family Columbidae); also, something having the shape of a dove's tail.
    • 1694, John Narborough, Jasmen Tasman [i.e., Abel Tasman], John Wood, Frederick Marten [i.e., Friedrich Martens], “[The Voyage into Spitzbergen and Greenland] Of the Crustaceous Fish that I Observed”, in [probably Tancred Robinson], editor, An Account of Several Late Voyages & Discoveries to the South and North. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC, 4th part, section V (Of the Star-fish), pages 118–119:
      Beſides this, another fine Starfiſh came to my Hands, […] Its body hath ten corners, and it hath a Star above vvith as many Rays; each of theſe one may compare unto a Sail of the VVindmills that the Children run againſt the VVind vvithal, or to a piece of ſuch Croſſes that are broad before, and narrovv vvhere they meet together; that is to ſay, of the ſhape of a Dove-tail: […]
  2. (chiefly woodworking, often attributively)
    1. In full dovetail joint: a type of joint where adjoining components are fastened by multiple tenons cut into wedge shapes resembling a dove's tail, which interlock with mortises having corresponding shapes.
      Synonyms: culvertail, fantail, swallowtail
      • 1733, Philip Miller, “WINE-PRESS”, in The Gardeners Dictionary: […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, column 1:
        [T]heſe muſt be joined at Bottom to the Piles by a ſtrong Dove-tail, and the Piles joined vvith Braces; […]
      • 1900, “Brazing Keys”, in Paul N[ooncree] Hasluck, editor, Cassell’s Cyclopædia of Mechanics […] (First Series), London, Paris: Cassell and Company, […], →OCLC, page 311, column 1:
        With a warding file cut a dovetail on each of the ends to be joined, as shown by Fig. 1.
      • [1921], [William Fairham], “The Dovetail Joint”, in Woodwork Joints: How They are Set Out, How Made and Where Used; […], Philadelphia, Pa., London: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC, page 123:
        After marking out the pins on the drawer sides, we proceed with the next operation, that is, sawing the dovetails ready for chopping out the waste material.
      • 1944 April, Edwin M. Love, “Handmade Dovetails”, in Charles McLendon, editor, The Popular Science Monthly, volume 144, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 151, column 1:
        DOVETAIL joints, well known for their strength, have long been used in fine cabinet work. Nowadays they are frequently displaced by other types of joints that are easier to make with power tools, but where a self-locking joint is needed for use without glue, the dovetail is unsurpassed.
    2. A tenon cut into a wedge shape resembling a dove's tail so that it interlocks with a mortise having a corresponding shape in a dovetail joint.
  3. (heraldry) A line resembling a dovetail joint (sense 2.1).
    • 1722, Alexander Nisbet, “Of the Points and Parts of the Shield; and Forms of Lines, which Divide the Shield into Several Parts”, in A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical: […], Edinburgh: […] J. MackEuen, →OCLC, page 23:
      I ſhall add other tvvo Forms of Lines, […] The firſt of theſe tvvo is termed Patee, or Dove-Tail, from a Form of Art uſed by Joiners, vvho make Joints one into the other by that Name: […]
    • 1736, John Harris, “ASSEMBLEE”, in Lexicon Technicum: Or, An Universal English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences: […], 5th edition, volume I, London: […] J. Walthoe, […], →OCLC, column 2:
      ASSEMBLEE, [in Heraldry,] a Dovetail or more to hold the tvvo Parts of the Eſcutcheon together, vvhere the Partition Line is, being countercharged, is ſome of the Metal and ſome of the Colour of the Eſcutcheon.
    • 1765, Mark Anthony Porny [pseudonym; Antoine Pyron du Martre], “Of the Charges. Article I. Of Honourable Ordinaries.”, in The Elements of Heraldry, […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC, section II (Of the Pale), page 47:
      The ninth is Quarterly per Pale dovetail, Ruby and Topaz; born by the Right Hon. Thomas Bromley, Lord Montfort, &c.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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Verb

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dovetail (third-person singular simple present dovetails, present participle dovetailing, simple past and past participle dovetailed)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (chiefly woodworking) To unite (components) with a dovetail (noun sense 2.1) or similar joint.
      • 1733, Philip Miller, “WINE-PRESS”, in The Gardeners Dictionary: […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, column 2:
        [T]heſe Piles ought to be placed contrary to the Stillings, vvhich ſurround or croſs them every three Feet, and Dove-tail'd into the ſquare Supporters; […]
      • 1900, Walter William Skeat, “Man and His Place in the Universe”, in Malay Magic: Being an Introduction to the Folklore and Popular Religion of the Malay Peninsula, London: Macmillan and Co.; New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, footnote 1, page 33:
        In house-building it is further forbidden [by Sultan Muhammed Shah] to dovetail or make the ends of the timbers (e.g. of the roof) fit accurately together, and also to build two verandahs, one on each side of the house, with their floors on a level with the floor of the main building; if two verandahs are used, the floor of one must be lower than that of the main building (kelek anak).
    2. (figuratively)
      1. To combine or fit (things) together well.
        The executive board dovetailed its decision neatly with the prior projects the company had taken up.
        Through my new project, I dovetail my interests in botany and programming.
        • 1943 March–April, John R. Hind, “The British Railways at War”, in The Railway Magazine, Sutton, London: IPC Transport Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 95:
          Close contacts are also maintained between the chief operating officers of the railways and the movement and transport officers of the Service departments to dovetail railway transport into the schemes of the fighting forces.
        • 1988, Kenji Hakuta, “Why Bilinguals?”, in Frank S. Kessel, editor, The Development of Language and Language Researchers: Essays in Honor of Roger Brown, Hillsdale, N.J., Hove, East Sussex: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, →ISBN, page 299:
          I felt that through the combined study of psychology and linguistics I would find out how children learned language, and that I would be able to dovetail this knowledge into my business career in Japan.
        • 2024, Diego Comin, Robert C. Johnson, Callum Jones, Supply Chain Constraints and Inflation [preprint], p. 2
          This “markup shock” interpretation of the role of binding [constraints] dovetails well with related work by Bernanke and Blanchard (2023), which uses an empirical model to argue that product market shocks (which raise prices given wages) explain a large share of recent US inflation.
      2. (computing) To interweave (a number of algorithms or subprograms) so that they can be run more or less simultaneously.
        • 2002, Nader H. Bshouty, Jeffrey C. Jackson, Christino Tamon, “Exploring Learnability between Exact and PAC”, in Jyrki Kivinen, Robert H. Sloan, editors, Computational Learning Theory: 15th Annual Conference on Computational Learning Theory, COLT 2002, Sydney, Australia, July 8–10, 2002: Proceedings (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNAI); 2375; Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence), Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 248:
          However, we can construct a single master algorithm that DPExact learns from unknown distribution by simply dovetailing the algorithms . The precise way in which we dovetail the algorithms depends on whether our goal is time or query efficiency.
  2. (intransitive, figuratively) Of several things: to combine or fit together well.
    The parts of your essay should dovetail so that it is cohesive and coherent.
    • 2019 October, Philip Sherratt, “Midland Main Line Upgrade Presses On”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 60:
      The task now facing Mr Crook and his team in the multi-disciplinary programme is sequencing the works going forward, to ensure track, signalling, station works and overhead line installations dovetail together.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “dovetail, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “dovetail, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “dovetail, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2022; “dovetail, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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