different between thin vs silken

English

Etymology

From Middle English thinne, thünne, thenne, from Old English þynne, from Proto-West Germanic *þunn?, from Proto-Germanic *þunnuz (“thin”) – compare *þanjan? (“to stretch, spread out”) – from Proto-Indo-European *ténh?us (“thin”), from *ten- (“to stretch”).

Cognate with German dünn, Dutch dun, West Frisian tin, Icelandic þunnur, Danish tynd, Swedish tunn, Latin tenuis, Irish tanaí, Welsh tenau, Latvian tievs, Sanskrit ??? (tanú, “thin”), Persian ???? (tang, “narrow”). Doublet of tenuis. Also related to tenuous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???n/
• Rhymes: -?n
• Homophones: tin (with th-stopping), fin (with th-fronting)

Adjective

thin (comparative thinner, superlative thinnest)

1. Having little thickness or extent from one surface to its opposite.

   • Out of spite, the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill: they said that it had fallen down because the walls were too thin.

2. Very narrow in all diameters; having a cross section that is small in all directions.

3. Having little body fat or flesh; slim; slender; lean; gaunt.

   thin person

4. Of low viscosity or low specific gravity.

   Water is thinner than honey.

5. Scarce; not close, crowded, or numerous; not filling the space.

   The trees of a forest are thin; the corn or grass is thin.

   • Ferrara is very large, but extremely thin of people.

6. (golf) Describing a poorly played golf shot where the ball is struck by the bottom part of the club head. See fat, shank, toe.
7. Lacking body or volume; small; feeble; not full.

   • thin, hollow sounds, and lamentable screams

8. Slight; small; slender; flimsy; superficial; inadequate; not sufficient for a covering.

   a thin disguise

9. (aviation) Of a route: relatively little used.
   • 2016, Hartmut Wolf, ?Peter Forsyth, ?David Gillen, Liberalization in Aviation (page 105)

     In short, we previously found that thin routes benefit from an increase in competition in the Spanish airline market when considering routes that were monopoly routes in 2001.

10. Poor; scanty; without money or success.
    • 1945, Jack Henry, What Price Crime? (page 92)

      Like their friends the "draggers," the "hoisters" or shoplifters are having a thin time these days, […]

Synonyms

• (having little thickness from one surface to its opposite): narrow; see also Thesaurus:narrow
• (very narrow in all diameters): fine
• (having little body fat or flesh): reedy, skinny, slender, slim, svelte, waifish; see also Thesaurus:slender or Thesaurus:scrawny
• (of low viscosity): runny, watery; see also Thesaurus:runny
• (not close or crowded): spaced out, sparse; see also Thesaurus:diffuse
• (not numerous): scant, scarce, slight

Antonyms

• thick

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

thin (plural thins)

1. (philately) A loss or tearing of paper from the back of a stamp, although not sufficient to create a complete hole.
2. Any food produced or served in thin slices.

   chocolate mint thins

   potato thins

Translations

Verb

thin (third-person singular simple present thins, present participle thinning, simple past and past participle thinned)

1. (transitive) To make thin or thinner.
2. (intransitive) To become thin or thinner.

   The crowds thinned after the procession had passed: there was nothing more to see.

3. To dilute.
4. To remove some plants or parts of plants in order to improve the growth of what remains.

Derived terms

• thin out

Translations

Adverb

thin (comparative more thin, superlative most thin)

1. Not thickly or closely; in a scattered state.

   seed sown thin

   • 1623, Francis Bacon, A Discourse of a War with Spain

     Spain is a nation thin sown of people.

Further reading

• thin in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• thin in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• thin at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Nith, hint

Middle English

Etymology 1

Determiner

thin (subjective pronoun þou)

1. Alternative form of þin (“thy”)

Pronoun

thin (subjective þou)

1. Alternative form of þin (“thine”)

Etymology 2

Adjective

thin

1. Alternative form of thinne (“thin”)

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *þ?n.

Determiner

th?n

1. thy, your (singular)
2. thine, yours

Inflection

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: dijn
  • Dutch: dijn
  • Limburgish: dien

Further reading

• “th?n”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old High German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ði?n/

Determiner

th?n

1. Alternative form of din

References

1. Joseph Wright, An Old High German Primer, Second Edition

Old Saxon

Etymology 1

From Proto-West Germanic *þ?n.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i?n/
• (late Old Saxon) IPA^(key): [ði?n]

Determiner

th?n

1. thy, your (singular)
2. thine, yours

Declension

See also

References

1. Köbler, Gerhard, Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, (5. Auflage) 2014
2. Altsächsisches Elementarbuch by Dr. F. Holthausen

Etymology 2

See here.

Determiner

thin

1. instrumental singular masculine/neuter of th?

Welsh

Noun

thin

1. Aspirate mutation of tin.

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, equivalent to silk +? -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?lk?n/
• Hyphenation: silk?en

Adjective

silken (not comparable)

1. Made of silk.

   a silken veil

2. Having a smooth, soft, or light texture, like that of silk; suggestive of silk.
   • 1646, Richard Crashaw, “Vpon Mr. Staninough’s Death” in Steps to the Temple: Sacred Poems, with Other Delights of the Muses, London: Humphrey Moseley, p. 40,^[1]

     Come then youth, Beauty, and Blood, all ye soft powers,

     Whose silken flatteryes swell a few fond houres.

   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, London: J. Johnson, Part I, Chapter 9, p. 322,^[2]

     […] love is not to be bought, in any sense of the words, its silken wings are instantly shrivelled up when any thing beside a return in kind is sought.

   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South, Chapter 1,^[3]

     […] in spite of the buzz in the next room, Edith had rolled herself up into a soft ball of muslin and ribbon, and silken curls, and gone off into a peaceful little after-dinner nap.

   • 1994, Stephen Fry, The Hippopotamus, Random House, 2010, Chapter 2, p. 37,^[4]

     He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

3. (figuratively, of speech, singing, oratory, etc.) Smoothly uttered; flowing, subtle, or convincing in presentation.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act V, Scene 2,^[5]

     Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,

     Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation,

     Figures pedantical; these summer-flies

     Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:

4. Dressed in silk.
   • c. 1596, William Shakespeare, King John, Act V, Scene 1,^[6]

     […] shall a beardless boy,

     A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […] ?

   • 1633, John Donne, “Satyre I” in Poems, London: John Marriot, p. 327,^[7]

     Yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet

     Every fine silken painted foole we meet,

     He then to him with amorous smiles allures,

   • 1724, Aaron Hill, The Plain Dealer, London: S. Richardson & A. Wilde, 1730, Volume 2, No. 81, 28 December, 1724, p. 197,^[8]

     Last Saturday was three Weeks, at Two, in the Afternoon, I sent out my Servant, to watch a Couple of these Silken Strollers, and keep, if possible, within Ken of them.

   • 1968, Jan Morris, Pax Britannica: The Climax of Empire, London: Faber & Faber, 2010, Chapter 10, p. 200,^[9]

     […] the Viceroy moved magnificently through India, resplendent with all the colour and dash of the vast Empire at his feet, with his superb bodyguard jangling scarlet beside his carriage, silken Indian princes bowing at his carpet, generals quivering at the salute and ceremonial salutes of thirty-one guns […]

Synonyms

• (made of silk): seric (rare)

Derived terms

• silkenly

Translations

Verb

silken (third-person singular simple present silkens, present participle silkening, simple past and past participle silkened)

1. (transitive) To render silken or silklike.

   silkening body lotion

   • 1757, John Dyer, The Fleece, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Book I, lines 492-494, p. 30,^[10]

     Or, if your sheep are of Silurian breed,

     Nightly to house them dry on fern or straw,

     Silk’ning their fleeces.

   • 1987, Derek Walcott, “The Light of the World” in The Arkansas Testament, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, p. 48,^[11]

     […] these lights silkened her black skin:

Anagrams

• Elkins, Kinsel, Lesnik, inkles, k-lines, klines, likens

Middle English

Adjective

silken

1. Alternative form of selken

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

silken m

1. definite singular of silke

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

silken m

1. definite singular of silke