Word of the Day
: October 16, 2021gossamer
playWhat It Means
Gossamer means "extremely light, delicate, or tenuous."
// Except for a few gossamer clouds, the sky was clear and blue.
gossamer in Context
"The dragonfly is our state insect…. As a beautiful predator with gossamer wings…, this insect deserves far more appreciation." — Barbara Hunt, The Mat-Su Valley (Alaska) Frontiersman, 2 Aug. 2021
Did You Know?
In the days of Middle English, a period of mild weather in late autumn or early winter was sometimes called a gossomer, literally "goose summer." People may have chosen that name for a late-season warm spell because October and November were the months when people felt that geese were at their best for eating. Gossomer was also used in Middle English as a word for filmy cobwebs floating through the air in calm, clear weather, apparently because somebody thought the webs looked like the down of a goose. This sense eventually inspired the adjective gossamer, which means "light, delicate, or tenuous"—just like cobwebs or goose down.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Quiz
Fill in the blanks to complete an adjective related to the word for the hair that sometimes covers a newborn baby and means "covered with fine soft hair": l _ n _ g _ n _ _s.
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