| 释义 |
gossamer, n. and a.|ˈgɒsəmə(r)|
Forms: 4–5 gosesomer(e, 4–6 gossom(m)er, 5 gossomyre, gossummer, 6–7 gossamour, 7 gosimore, gossamire, -ore, gossem-, -im-, -ymear(e, -e(e)re, gothsemay, -imere, 7–9 gossamere, 8 gossimer, (gosshemere, garsummer), 7– gossamer.
[ME. gos(e)somer(e, app. f. goose n. + summer n. Cf. the synonymous Eng. dial. summer-goose (Craven), summer-colt, G. mädchensommer (lit. ‘girls' summer’), altweibersommer (‘old women's summer’); also G. sommerfäden, Du. zomerdraden, Sw. sommartråd, all literally ‘summer thread’.
The reason for the appellation is somewhat obscure. It is usually assumed that goose in this compound refers to the ‘downy’ appearance of gossamer. But it is to be noted that G. mädchen-, altweibersommer mean not only ‘gossamer’, but also a summer-like period in late autumn, a St. Martin's summer; that the obs. Sc. go-summer had the latter meaning; and that it is in the warm periods of autumn that gossamer is chiefly observed. These considerations suggest the possibility that the word may primarily have denoted a ‘St. Martin's summer’ (the time when geese were supposed to be in season: cf. G. Gänsemonat ‘geese-month’, November), and have been hence transferred to the characteristic phenomenon of the period. On this view summer-goose (which by etymologizing perversion appears also as summer-gauze) would be a transposition.]
A. n.
1. A fine filmy substance, consisting of cobwebs, spun by small spiders, which is seen floating in the air in calm weather, esp. in autumn, or spread over a grassy surface: occas. with a and pl., a thread or web of gossamer.
c1325Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in Wright Voc. 147 Filaundre [glossed] gosesomer. c1386Chaucer Sqr.'s T. 251 On ebbe on flood on gossomer and on myst. 14..Bewte will Shewe 5 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 45 Twene gold and gossomer is grete difference. c1440Promp. Parv. 205/1 Gossomer, corrupcyon (H., P. gossummyr, or corrupcion), filandrya. 1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. ii. vi. 18 A Louer may bestride the Gossamours..And yet not fall. 1627Drayton Nimphidia xvii, Foure nimble Gnats the Horses were, Their Harnasses of Gossamere. 1633Massinger Guardian ii. iv, A bed of gossamire And damask roses. 1659Lady Alimony D 2, Small threeds Thin-spun as is the subtil Gothsemay. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 543 The filmy Gossamer now flitts no more. 1777W. Mason Ep. to Dr. Shebbeare 95 Let my numbers flutter light in air, As careless as the silken Gossimer. 1798Coleridge Anc. Mar. iii. ix, Are those her sails that glance in the Sun Like restless gossameres? 1813Shelley Q. Mab 120 Let even the restless gossamer Sleep on the moveless air! 1847Tennyson Princ. v. 163 To trip a tigress with a gossamer. 1850― In Mem. xi. 7 All the silvery gossamers That twinkle into green and gold. a1851Moir October Poet. Wks. 1852 I. 124 The gossamer..Now floats and now subsides upon the air. 1878Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 34 Weaving gossamer to trap the sun.
b. transf. and fig. Applied to something light and flimsy as gossamer.
a1400Morte Arth. 2688 This es bot gosesomere, and gyffene one erles. 1658Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 194 It will..fly away like the down, or gossemeere of dandelyon. 1827Hood Mids. Fairies xii, Not measured out against Fate's mortal knives, Like human gossamers. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. vi. i. (1866) 782 A decent gossamer of conventional phraseology was ever allowed to float over the nakedness of unblushing treason. 1871Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue §233 It would hardly have beseemed such a poet as Chaucer to bring the stroke of his measure down upon such a gossamer.
2. An extremely delicate kind of gauze.
1872Black Adv. Phaeton i. 2 A dress of blue, with touches of white gossamer and fur about the tight wrists and neck.
3. a. In England: Originally, an advertising tradesman's name for a make of silk hat recommended as extremely light; hence, used jocularly for a hat generally. b. U.S. A name for a very light kind of waterproof.
1837Dickens Pickw. xii, Every hole lets in some air..wentilation gossamer I calls it. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 43, ‘I have sold hats from 6d. to 3s. 6d., but very seldom 3s. 6d. The 3s. 6d. ones would wear out two new gossamers.’ 1888Harper's Mag. June 139/1 Flinging off his gossamer, and hanging it up to drip into the pan of the hat rack.
4. attrib.
1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 365 The Gossamer Spider. 1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1843) II. 269 That sight occasionally noticed in fine days in the autumn, of webs—commonly called gossamer webs—covering the earth and floating in the air. 1830Hood Haunted Ho. iii. lxxx, Across the door no gossamer festoon Swung pendulous. 1839Bailey Festus (1854) 12 The gossamer woof, beaded with dew. 1873Sunday Mag. June 625 The little gossamer thread of hope. 1875Encycl. Brit. II. 296/1 Gossamer lines are merely the threads left by small and immature spiders.
B. adj. Of things, both material and immaterial: Light and flimsy as gossamer. Of persons: Frivolous, volatile.
1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) i. Introd., Pride and the plague of this gossamer frame of mine. 1843Lytton Last Bar. i. ii, [Girls] dancing round him with..gossamer robes that brushed him as they circled. 1847Youatt Horse xi. 239 The gossamer membrane of..the lobules of the lungs. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. xliii, Such an unworldly, uncalculating, gossamer-creature, is a relief to him. 1852H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 15 He walks through this bleak world in such a gossamer gauze of transparent ‘spiritualism’ that [etc.]. 1853C. Brontë Villette xxvii, There was a kind of gossamer happiness hanging in the air. 1857W. Collins Dead Secret iii. i. (1861) 75 [He] sighed when the black gossamer ashes floated upward on the draught, and were lost in the chimney. 1879Print. Trades Jrnl. xxix. 35 A gossamer tissue in imitation of the Japanese. 1888Pall Mall G. 26 Jan. 12/1 Light-weight [India-rubber] goods such as ladies wear, known as gossamer goods. 1893Dublin Rev. Oct. 789 The original authors of this gossamer gossip.
Comb.1849James Woodman v, That gay gossamer-looking youth, whom the young lord called Hungerford.
Hence ˈgossamered ppl. a., coated with gossamer, gossamer-like.
1860Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. vi. x. §18 Casting a gossamered grayness and softness of plumy mist along their surfaces far away. 1897Q. Rev. Oct. 344 His [Mr. Austin Dobson's] society is one of picturesque ghosts; of history gossamered. |