different between chiffon vs silk

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French chiffon, from Middle French chiffe (“cloth, old rag”), from Old French chipe (“rag”), from Middle English chip, chippe (“chip, shard, fragment”), from Old English ?ipp (“chip, splinter, shaving”); see chip.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???f?n/, /???f?n/

Noun

chiffon (plural chiffons)

1. A sheer silk or rayon fabric.

   Her dresses are made from these marvelous chiffons.

2. Any purely ornamental accessory on a woman's dress, such as a bunch of ribbon, lace, etc.

Derived terms

• chiffon cake

Translations

French

Etymology

From chiffe +? -on.

Chiffe is from Middle French chiffe (“cloth, old rag”) from Old French chipe (“rag”), from Middle English chip, chippe (“chip, shard, fragment”) from Old English ?ipp (“chip, splinter, shaving”), from Proto-Germanic *?ippian (“to chip, shave, splinter”), from Proto-Indo-European *?ey- (“to split; divide; germinate; sprout”). More at chip.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i.f??/

Noun

chiffon m (plural chiffons)

1. rag
2. scrap (of paper)

Related terms

• chiffonner

Further reading

• “chiffon” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Portuguese

Etymology

From French chiffon

Noun

chiffon m (uncountable)

1. chiffon (sheer silk or rayon fabric)

English

Etymology

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian ???? (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilka?), all ultimately from Late Latin s?ricus, from Ancient Greek ??????? (s?rikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese ? (s?, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric.

Pronunciation

• enPR: s?lk, IPA^(key): /s?lk/
• Rhymes: -?lk

Noun

silk (countable and uncountable, plural silks)

1. (chiefly uncountable) A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider).

2. A fine, soft cloth woven from silk fibers.
3. Anything which resembles silk, such as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize, or the seed covering of bombaxes.
4. The gown worn by a Senior (i.e. Queen's/King's) Counsel.
5. (colloquial) A Senior (i.e. Queen's or King's) Counsel.
6. (circus arts, in the plural) A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks.
7. (horse racing, usually in the plural) The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

silk (third-person singular simple present silks, present participle silking, simple past and past participle silked)

1. (transitive) To remove the silk from (corn).
   • 2013, Lynetra T. Griffin, From Whence We Came (page 17)

     While we shucked and silked the corn, we talked, sang old nursery rhymes […]

See also

• sericin

Anagrams

• Kils, Lisk, ilks, skil