different between silk vs diaphanous

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

English

Etymology

From Medieval Latin diaphanus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (diaphan?s) ('To appear/shine through '; 'dia' - through + 'phaino' - to appear).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /da??æf.?n.?s/

Adjective

diaphanous (comparative more diaphanous, superlative most diaphanous)

1. Transparent or translucent; allowing light to pass through; capable of being seen through.
   • 2004, Gustave Flaubert, Margaret Maulden (translator), Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners, page 98,

     The evening mist, drifting among the leafless poplars, veiled their silhouettes with a violet film, paler and more translucent than the most diaphanous gauze that might have caught in their branches.

2. Of a fine, almost transparent, texture; gossamer; light and insubstantial.
   • 1951, Robert Frost, Unpublished preface to a collection, 2007, Mark Richardson (editor), The Collected Prose of Robert Frost, page 169,

     The most diaphanous wings carry a burden of pollen from flower to flower.

   • 1963, Hermann Weyl, quoted in 1985, Floyd Merrell, Deconstruction Reframed, page 67,

     What is amazing is that "a concept that is created by mind itself, the sequence of integers, the simplest and most diaphanous thing for the constructive mind, assumes a similar aspect of obscurity and deficiency when viewed from the axiomatic angle" (Weyl, 1963, 220).

3. (physics) Isorefractive, having an identical refractive index.

Synonyms

• (allowing light to pass through): translucent, transparent, see-through, sheer
• (of a fine, almost transparent, texture): delicate, insubstantial, sheer

Antonyms

• (transparent or translucent): opaque
• (of a fine, almost transparent, texture): concrete, solid

Related terms

• diaphanously
• diaphanousness

Translations