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gossamer en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈɡɑ.sə.mɚ/ (General-American)
• /ˈɡɒ.sə.mə/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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”) and to have initially referred to a period of warm weather in late autumn when geese were eaten — compare Middle Scots goesomer, goe-summer (“summery weather in late autumn; St Martin's summer”) and dialectal English go-harvest, both later connected in folk-etymology to go — and to have been transferred to cobwebs because they were frequent then or because they were likened to goose-down. 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". Weekley notes that both the webs and the weather have fantastical names in most European languages: compare German Altweibersommer (“Indian summer; cobwebs, gossamer”, literally “old wives' summer”) and other terms listed there.

Meanings

1. Tenuous, light, filmy or delicate.
   • 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! 1857, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Daisy's Necklace: And What Came of It:
   • His two previous novels, though much celebrated, I found too ethereal, the style as gossamer and sticky as cotton candy. 1982 December 4, Mitzel, “A Sissy's Revenge”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 9:
   • A gossamer blanket of coaldust floated down like a dirty blessing and gently smothered the traffic. 1997, Arundhati Roy, chapter 2, in The God of Small Things, New York: Random House, page 83:
   • 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. 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Black Cat”, in Tales, New York: Wiley and Putnam, page 37:
   • 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. 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
most gossamer	Degree=Sup		lexicographic
more gossamer	Degree=Cmp		lexicographic

Synonyms

gossamer-thin · gossamery

Translations (11)

it sottile (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · it delicato (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · fi seitinohut (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · pl cienki (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · fi harsomainen (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · cy gwawnaidd (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · cy ysgafn (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · ru то́нкий (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · mi angiangi (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · io filandra (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate) · cy main (tenuous, light, filmy or delicate)

wikipedia: Craven

gossamer en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ˈɡɑ.sə.mɚ/ (General-American)
• /ˈɡɒ.sə.mə/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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”) and to have initially referred to a period of warm weather in late autumn when geese were eaten — compare Middle Scots goesomer, goe-summer (“summery weather in late autumn; St Martin's summer”) and dialectal English go-harvest, both later connected in folk-etymology to go — and to have been transferred to cobwebs because they were frequent then or because they were likened to goose-down. 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". Weekley notes that both the webs and the weather have fantastical names in most European languages: compare German Altweibersommer (“Indian summer; cobwebs, gossamer”, literally “old wives' summer”) and other terms listed there.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A fine film made up of cobwebs, seen floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc.
   • A lover may bestride the gossamer / That idles in the wanton summer air, / And yet not fall; so light is vanity. c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vi]:
   • I had been dead-heavy before, and now I felt a kind of dreadful lightness, which would not suffer me to walk. I drifted like a gossamer; the ground seemed to me a cloud, the hills a feather-weight, the air to have a current, like a running burn, which carried me to and fro. 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 22, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 222:
   • The dew and gossamer had dried early from the grass 1972, Richard Adams, chapter 26, in Watership Down, Penguin, published 1974, part 2, page 233:
   • The filmy Gossamer now flitts no more, 1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, line 453:
2. (countable, uncountable) A soft, sheer fabric.
   • She takes a large, gossamer scarf from the trunk and drapes it about her shoulders. 1947, Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire, New York, N.Y.: Signet, Scene 5, p. 84:
   • a circle of popes or maybe bishops in white gossamer robes 2013, Rachel Kushner, chapter 14, in The Flamethrowers, New York: Scribner, page 231:
   • Madame wiped the picture with her gossamer handkerchief and impulsively pressed a tender kiss upon the painted canvas. 1894, Kate Chopin, “A Lady of Bayou St. John”, in Bayou Folk, Boston, Mass.: Houghton, Mifflin, page 306:
3. (countable, figuratively, uncountable) Anything delicate, light and flimsy.

Forms

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
gossamers	Number=Plur		lexicographic

Deriveds

gossamerlike · gossamer-winged butterfly · gossamered · gossamery · gossamer-thin · gossamer spider

Translations (59)

uz mezon (cobwebs floating in the air) · cy meinwe (a soft, sheer fabric) · cmn 游絲 /游丝 (cobwebs floating in the air) · sh bablje ljeto (cobwebs floating in the air) · pl delikatny przedmiot (anything delicate, light, flimsy) · nl herfstdraad (cobwebs floating in the air) · fi seitti (cobwebs floating in the air) · cy drifl y gwynt (cobwebs floating in the air) · bg воал (a soft, sheer fabric) · sv flor (a soft, sheer fabric) · sv spindelväv (cobwebs floating in the air) · ru паути́на (cobwebs floating in the air) · cy blew Medi (cobwebs floating in the air) · ko 거미줄 (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Marienhaar (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Marienseide (cobwebs floating in the air) · ga téada an phúca (cobwebs floating in the air) · hu fátyolszövet (a soft, sheer fabric) · de Herbstgarn (cobwebs floating in the air) · fi harso (cobwebs floating in the air) · ro funigel (cobwebs floating in the air) · ru ткань (a soft, sheer fabric) · cmn 蛛絲 /蛛丝 (cobwebs floating in the air) · ja 遊糸 (cobwebs floating in the air) · hu ökörnyál (cobwebs floating in the air) · cy hifryn (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Mariengarn (cobwebs floating in the air) · bg есенна паяжина (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Herbstfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Altweiberfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · cmn 薄紗 /薄纱 (a soft, sheer fabric) · de Frauenfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · cs babí léto (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Sommerseide (cobwebs floating in the air) · fi harso (a soft, sheer fabric) · ru паути́нка (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Sommerfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · fr fil de la vierge (cobwebs floating in the air) · fr fils de la Vierge (cobwebs floating in the air) · ja 薄い紗 (a soft, sheer fabric) · nl ragfijn weefsel (a soft, sheer fabric) · fi seitti (a soft, sheer fabric) · cy tidau'r tes (cobwebs floating in the air) · ja 流れ糸 (cobwebs floating in the air) · gv sneeuane (cobwebs floating in the air) · nl delicaat (anything delicate, light, flimsy) · de Liebfrauenfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Marienfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · pl lekka tkanina (a soft, sheer fabric) · pl babie lato (cobwebs floating in the air) · cy drifl yr ych (cobwebs floating in the air) · ja 流れ糸のように繊細なはかないもの (anything delicate, light, flimsy) · cy gwawn (cobwebs floating in the air) · gd croisean Moire (cobwebs floating in the air) · ru газ (a soft, sheer fabric) · ja 流れ糸のように繊細なかぼそいもの (anything delicate, light, flimsy) · gd gaoir-theas (cobwebs floating in the air) · de Flugfäden (cobwebs floating in the air) · cs flór (a soft, sheer fabric)

wikipedia: Craven