gossamer
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Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English gossomer, from gos (“goose”) + somer (“summer”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɡɒ.sə.mə/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɡɑ.sə.mɚ/
Audio (AU) (file)
Noun[edit]
gossamer (countable and uncountable, plural gossamers)
- A fine film or strand as of cobwebs, floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc.
- A soft, sheer fabric.
- Anything delicate, light and flimsy.
Derived terms[edit]
- gossamery (adjective)
- gossamer-thin (adjective)
Translations[edit]
cobwebs floating in the air
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a soft, sheer fabric
anything delicate, light, flimsy
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adjective[edit]
gossamer (comparative more gossamer, superlative most gossamer)
- Tenuous, light, filmy or delicate.
- (Can we date this quote by Thomas Bailey Aldrich?)
- The heaven was spangled with tremulous stars, and at the horizon the clouds hung down in gossamer folds—God's robe trailing in the sea!
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- He walked. To the corner of Hamilton Place and Picadilly, and there stayed for a while, for it is a romantic station by night. The vague and careless rain looked like threads of gossamer silver passing across the light of the arc-lamps.
