Online Encyclopedia

light, unsubstantial or flimsy is known as "gossamer." A thin gauzy material used for trimming and millinery, resembling the " chiffon " of to-See also:

day, was formerly known as gossamer; and in the See also:

early Victorian See also:

period it was a See also:

TERM

term used in the See also:

hat See also:

trade, for See also:

SILK

silk hats of very light See also:

WEIGHT

weight. The word is obscure in origin, it is found in numerous forms in See also:

ENGLISH

English, and is apparently taken from gose, See also:

goose and somere, summer. The Germans have Madchensommer, maidens' summer, and Altweibersommer, old See also:

WOMEN

women's summer, as well as Sommerfaden, summer-threads, as See also:

EQUIVALENT

equivalent to the English gossamer, the connexion apparently being that gossamer is seen most frequently in the warm days of See also:

LATE

late autumn (St See also:

Martin's summer) when geese are also in See also:

SEASON (0. Fr. seson, seison, mod. saison, Lat. satio, sowing time, the spring, from serere, to sow; in Late Lat. the word is found with its present meaning, the spring being considered as particularly the season of the year)

season. Another See also:

SUGGESTION

suggestion is that the word is a corruption of gaze a See also:

MARIE

Marie (See also:

GAUZE

gauze of See also:

Mary) through the See also:

LEGEND (through the French from the med. Lat. legenda, things to be read, from legere, to read)

legend that gossamer was origin-ally the threads which See also:

fell away from the Virgin's See also:

SHROUD (O. Eng. scrud, garment; cf. Icel. skrudh, in the secondary sense of rigging, allied with " shred," O. Eng. screade, a piece, strip)

shroud on her See also:

ASSUMPTION, FEAST OF

assumption.

End of Article: GOSSAMER

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
GOSS, SIR JOHN (1800–1880)

[next]
GOSSE, EDMUND (1849– )