Thursday, November 01, 2007

Gossamer \GAH-suh-mer\

The Word of the Day for November 1 is:
gossamer \GAH-suh-mer\ adjective
: extremely light, delicate, or tenuous

Example sentence:
The early morning mists formed gossamer trails through the valley, their frail beauty a stark contrast to the dark, forbidding forest that loomed behind them.

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.

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2 comments:

Batty said...

Yup. And it's a word my cat doesn't like because I had to click the back button several times to read the post! She can be quite silly sometimes. : )

spinndiva said...

In Germany we call late summer early fall "Altweibersommer" ( old woman summer) I guess because it did not remind people of goose down, but long,gray hair.. I like the goos summer better!