diaphane
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle French diaphane, from Medieval Latin diaphanus (“diaphanous”), from Ancient Greek διαφανής (diaphanḗs), from δια- (dia-, “through”) and φαίνω (phaínō, “show”).
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
diaphane (countable and uncountable, plural diaphanes)
- Something transparent.
- Hyponyms: cellophane, diapositive
- 1919, Donald F. Goold Johnson, Poems, page 71:
- And for man's life as the clear sparkling wine, Gladding the heart and lifting up the soul From its frail diaphane of petulant flesh, Yet whence doth flow this liquor of delight ?
- 2007, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Battle of Evernight: Bitterbynde 3, →ISBN:
- Here, dragonflies of metallic emerald-gold or ruby iridescence froze in midair on almost-invisible wings of diaphane.
- 2011, Valentine Cunningham, Victorian Poetry Now: Poets, Poems and Poetics, →ISBN:
- I moulded with my hands The mobile breasts, the valley; and the waist I touched; and pigments reverently placed Upon their thighs in sapient spots and stains, Beryls and crysolites and diaphanes, And gems whose hot harsh names are never said.
- A woven silk stuff with transparent and colored figures.
- (Aristotelian philosophy) Essence or nature as encapsulated in a mental construct.
- 2004, Didier Eribon, Insult and the Making of the Gay Self, →ISBN, page 168:
- The figure of the diaphane, "this clear crystal nature," is a person so perfect that his simple presence would do more for the world than others manage to do through their actions.
- 2008, John Michael Greer, The Druid Magic Handbook: Ritual Magic Rooted in the Living Earth, →ISBN:
- Thus dreams and daydreams, stray thoughts, and all the other products of imagination are not simply inside one human brain; some are created by the diaphane of the person who experiences them, others come form outside, but all are projected onto the astral light.
- 2010, Greg Urban, Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect, →ISBN:
- What becomes a topic of conversation, what becomes the subject of publicly circulating discourses, is what lies beyond the senses — the land above the sky, the world of the dead, the other side of the diaphane.
Derived terms edit
Related terms edit
- diaphanous (adj)
See also edit
French edit
Etymology edit
Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin diaphanus (“diaphanous”), from Ancient Greek διαφανής (diaphanḗs), from δια- (dia-, “through”) and φαίνω (phaínō, “show”).
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
diaphane (plural diaphanes)
- (physics or formal) diaphanous, translucent
- (of a person or their physical traits) delicate, fragile
- Elle avait des mains diaphanes.
- She had delicate hands.
Derived terms edit
Further reading edit
- “diaphane”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
German edit
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
diaphane
- inflection of diaphan:
Latin edit
Adjective edit
diaphane