gossamer

Origin:
1275–1325; Middle English gosesomer (see goose, summer¹); possibly first used as name for late, mild autumn, a time when goose was a favorite dish (compare German Gänsemonat November), then transferred to the cobwebs frequent at that time of year

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World English Dictionary

gossamer (ˈɡɒsəmə)

—n
1.	a gauze or silk fabric of the very finest texture
2.	a filmy cobweb often seen on foliage or floating in the air
3.	anything resembling gossamer in fineness or filminess
4.	(modifier) made of or resembling gossamer: gossamer wings

[C14 (in the sense: a filmy cobweb): probably from gosgoose¹ + somersummer¹; the phrase refers to St Martin's summer, a period in November when goose was traditionally eaten; from the prevalence of the cobweb in the autumn; compare German Gänsemonat, literally: goosemonth, used for November]

'gossamery

—*adj*

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

gossamer

early 14c., "spider threads spun in fields of stubble in late fall," apparently from gos "goose" + sumer "summer" (cf. Swed. sommertrad "summer thread"). The reference might be to a fancied resemblance of the silk to goose down, or because geese are in season then. The Ger. equivalent mädchensommer

(lit. "girls' summer") also has a sense of "Indian summer," and the Eng. word may originally have referred to a warm spell in autumn before being transferred to a phenomenon especially noticable then. Meaning "anything light or flimsy" is from c.1400. The adj. sense "filmy" is attested from 1802.

Example sentences

Rim's gossamer watercolors exude a breezy élan and they pop with

luscious color--the pinks are especially juicy.

This year, fewer guests will dine under crystal chandeliers or balls made of

roses hanging from a gossamer-covered ceiling.

Her shapely arms were bare, and in her hands she held a gossamer scarf.

He wore gossamer sleeves Sunday and red sequins meant to suggest the

fallen-angel aspect of his career.

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Related Words

gosmore lacy

lacy

Matching Quote

"Why it was that upon this beautiful feminine tissue, sensitive as gossamer, and practically blank as snow as yet, there should have been traced such a coarse pattern as it was doomed to receive; why so often the coarse appropriates the finer thus, the wrong man the woman, the wrong women the man, many years of analytical philosophy have failed to explain to our sense of order."

-Thomas Hardy