thistledown

English

Etymology

From thistle +‎ down.

Noun

thistledown (usually uncountable, plural thistledowns)

1. The soft, feathery pappus attached to the seeds of a thistle.
   • 1850, Mary Cowden Clarke, The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines: A Series of Fifteen Tales:

     Yet, let me not reproach myself, since the blame is due to her lightness of heart, her fickle fancy—no stabler than gossamer or thistledown—which the first wanton breath wafts elsewhere.

Translations

pappus attached to the seeds of a thistle

• Catalan: vil·là m
• Czech: chmýří n
• Irish: canach feochadáin m
• Plautdietsch: Disteljedaun m
• Scottish Gaelic: fras cluarain f
• Spanish: vilano (es) m, vilano de cardo m
• Welsh: gwlân ysgall m