Wiktionary

gossamer

English

edit
WOTD – 19 January 2006

Etymology

edit

From Middle English gossomer, gosesomer, gossummer (attested since around 1300, and only in reference to webs or other light things), usually thought to derive from gos (“goose”) + somer (“summer”)[1] and to have initially referred to a period of warm weather in late autumn when geese were eaten[2][3][4][5] — compare Middle Scots goesomer, goe-summer (“summery weather in late autumn; St Martin's summer”)[1] and dialectal English go-harvest,[6] both later connected in folk-etymology to go)[5][7][8] — and to have been transferred to cobwebs because they were frequent then or because they were likened to goose-down.[2][3][5][4] Skeat says that in Craven the webs were called summer-goose, and compares Scots and dialectal English use of summer-colt in reference to "exhalations seen rising from the ground in hot weather".[9] Weekley notes that both the webs and the weather have fantastical names in most European languages:[10] compare German Altweibersommer (“Indian summer; cobwebs, gossamer”, literally “old wives' summer”) and other terms listed there.

Pronunciation

edit

Noun

edit

gossamer (countable and uncountable, plural gossamers)

  1. A fine film or strand as of cobwebs, floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc.
  2. A soft, sheer fabric.
    • 1894, Kate Chopin, “A Lady of Bayou St. John”, in Bayou Folk‎[2], Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, page 306:
      Madame wiped the picture with her gossamer handkerchief and impulsively pressed a tender kiss upon the painted canvas.
    • 1947, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire‎[3], New York: Signet, Scene 5, p. 84:
      She takes a large, gossamer scarf from the trunk and drapes it about her shoulders.
    • 2013, Rachel Kushner, chapter 14, in The Flamethrowers, New York: Scribner, page 231:
      a circle of popes or maybe bishops in white gossamer robes
  3. Anything delicate, light and flimsy.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

edit

gossamer (comparative more gossamer, superlative most gossamer)

  1. Tenuous, light, filmy or delicate.
    • 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat”, in Tales‎[4], New York: Wiley and Putnam, page 37:
      There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.
    • 1857, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Daisy's Necklace: And What Came of It:
      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.
    • 1982 December 4, Mitzel, “A Sissy's Revenge”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 9:
      His two previous novels, though much celebrated, I found too ethereal, the style as gossamer and sticky as cotton candy.
    • 1997, Arundhati Roy, chapter 2, in The God of Small Things‎[5], New York: Random House, page 83:
      A gossamer blanket of coaldust floated down like a dirty blessing and gently smothered the traffic.

Synonyms

edit

Translations

edit

References

edit
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “gọ̄s-sŏmer, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 “gossamer”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “gossamer”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 “gossamer”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “gossamer”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
  6. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GO-HARVEST”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
  7. ^ “goesomer, n.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries: “”.
  8. ^ Joseph Wright, editor (1900), “GO-SUMMER”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume II (D–G), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →OCLC.
  9. ^ Walter W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (2013 edition), page 246
  10. ^ Ernest Weekley, An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English (1967), volume 1, page 653
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=gossamer&oldid=79644395"