gossamer
pronunciation
How to pronounce gossamer in British English:
UK [ˈgɒsəmə(r)]
How to pronounce gossamer in American English:
US [ˈgɑsəmə(r)]
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- Noun:
- a gauze fabric with an extremely fine texture
- filaments from a cobweb
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- Adjective:
- characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy
- so thin as to transmit light
Word Origin
- gossamer
- gossamer: [14] It would be pleasant to think that gossamer, originally ‘fine cobwebs’, is a descendant of an earlier goose-summer, but unfortunately there is not enough evidence to make this more than a conjecture. The theory goes as follows: mid-autumn is a time when geese for the table are plentiful (November was once known as gänsemonat ‘geese-month’ in German), and so a warm period around then might have been termed goose-summer (we now call it an Indian summer); the silken filaments of gossamer are most commonly observed floating in the air on such warm autumnal days; and so the spiders’ webs were christened with the name of the season.
- gossamer (n.)
- c. 1300, "filmy substance (actually spider threads) found in fields of stubble in late fall," apparently from gos "goose" (see goose (n.)) + sumer "summer" (see summer (n.)). Not found in Old English. The reference might be to a fancied resemblance of the silk to goose down, or more likely it is shifted from an original sense of "late fall; Indian summer" because geese are in season then. Compare Swedish equivalent sommartrad "summer thread," Dutch zommerdraden (plural). The German equivalent mädchensommer (literally "girls' summer") also has a sense of "Indian summer," and there was a Scottish go-summer "period of summer-like weather in late autumn" (1640s, folk-etymologized as if from go). Thus the English word originally might have referred to a warm spell in autumn before being transferred to a phenomenon especially noticeable then. Compare obsolete Scottish go-summer "period of summer-like weather in late autumn." Meaning "anything light or flimsy" is from c. 1400; as a type of gauze used for veils, 1837. The adjective sense "filmy, light as gossamer" is attested from 1802.
Synonym
Example
- 1. You are the beautiful gossamer !
- 2. Next to the oblong gossamer ships a field of olive tents , like mushrooms after a night 's rain , flapped in the wind .
- 3. Despite its grandeur the building had a ghostly quality with its dark musty rooms creaking doors and gossamer curtains that fluttered aimlessly .
- 4. These blankets are made up of gossamer threads spun by juvenile money spiders as they make the big step of leaving home .
- 5. The translucence allows for a finely woven field to emerge that appears much as gossamer wings ; many human artists have depicted such in the form of angels , light beings and cities of light .