gossamer

Meanings

Noun

• A fine film or strand as of cobwebs, floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc.
• A soft, sheer fabric.
• Anything delicate, light and flimsy.

Adjective

• Tenuous, light, filmy or delicate.

Related

Similar words

• gossamery
• gossamer-thin

Origin

• 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 + somer and to have initially referred to a period of warm weather in late autumn when geese were eaten — compare Middle Scots goesomer ("summery weather in late autumn; St Martin's summer") 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. Weekley notes that both the webs and the weather have fantastical names in most European languages: compare German Altweibersommer ("Indian summer; cobwebs, gossamer") and other terms listed there.