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Jun 26, 2013
This week's themeWord coined from animals This week's words fishwife skunky gossamer birdlime chameleonic 
A peasant woman with a thread of gossamer in her hand
(detail from the painting Indian Summer) Art: Józef Chelmonski (1849-1914)
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garggossamer
PRONUNCIATION:
(GOS-uh-muhr)
MEANING:
noun: 1. Something light, thin, or insubstantial. 2. A soft sheer gauzy fabric, used for veils, etc. 3. A fine, filmy cobweb or its thread seen floating in the air in calm weather. adjective: Thin, light, or delicate. ETYMOLOGY:
From goose + summer. The term is believed to have originated as a name
for late autumn when geese are in season and then transferred to cobwebs
seen around that time of the year. Earliest documented use: 1325.
USAGE:
"Indeed one dare not breathe near them for fear of breaking the gossamer
visions, causing movement to disrupt our focus." Joan Stanley-Baker; Ephemeral Feminine Fibers of Chen Shu-yen; Taipei Times (Taiwan); Jul 11, 2004. See more usage examples of gossamer in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I begin to see what marriage is for. It's to keep people away from each other. Sometimes I think that two people who love each other can be saved from madness only by the things that come between them: children, duties, visits, bores, relations, the things that protect married people from each other. -Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937)
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