The headword is a masculine noun in the nominative plural; again tau 139, and see generally LSJ s.v. tarso/s.
[1] The glosses are of the same grammatical form as the headword. The first, as indicated, has the sense of baskets in general, and the second is an alternative spelling for the Attic lemma; see generally LSJ s.v. ta/laros, and cf. tau 38, tau 39, and tau 129 (gloss). The headword is glossed similarly in Photius' Lexicon and identically in Etymologicum Magnum 747.1 (Kallierges), which also cites the rhetorical lexica of Aelius Dionysius and Pausanias (the grammarian); cf. Aelius Dionysius fr. 305 (Schwabe), from Eustathius, Commentary on the Odyssey 1625.16.
[2] This imagery is given by LSJ s.v. tarso/s II.2; it is used for any broad, flat surface (cf. tau 130, gloss), such as the blade of an oar or, perhaps collectively, a layered bank of such blades working one side of a trireme (see n.4). There, the overlaid rows of oars might bring to mind the structure of a bird's wing, whose feathers are laid in rows over one another (next note); Morrison, et al., p. 16.
[3] Thus, the extended flat of a bird's wing; cf. Aelian, De natura animalium 2.1.12 Hercher (web address 1) and LSJ s.v. tarso/s II.3.
[4] The accusative plural form of the headword, tarsou/s, appears at Thucydides 7.40.5 (web address 2), which describes an episode during the Athenian siege of Syracuse in Sicily (414-413 BCE). The defenders used small, light boats to penetrate under the blades of the oars and draw up alongside the Athenian ships; at such close range, Syracusan javelin throwers were able to inflict severe casualties on the Athenian rowing crews; Lazenby, p. 156.