diaphanous
/dʌɪˈaf(ə)nəs
/adjective
(Especially of fabric) light, delicate, and translucent: a diaphanous dress of pale gold...
- In lingerie, this is expressed by delicate shapes in diaphanous fabrics which flutter around the body.
- The house, too, is filled with colour and texture: gold, glitter, satin, lace, feathers, and yards of diaphanous fabric.
- He would ‘flit around the backyard trailing a long piece of diaphanous fabric, in the style of the ballets Russes’.
Synonyms
sheer, fine, ultra-fine, delicate, light, lightweight, thin, insubstantial, floaty, flimsy, filmy, silken, chiffony, gossamer, gossamery, gossamer-thin, gossamer-like, gauzy, gauzelike, cobwebby, feathery;
translucent, transparent, see-through
rare transpicuous, translucid
Origin
Early 17th century: from medieval Latin diaphanus, from Greek diaphanēs, from dia 'through' + phainein 'to show'.
dialogue from Middle English:
This comes via Old French and Latin from Greek dialogos, from dialegesthai ‘converse with, speak alternately’: the formative elements are dia- ‘through, across’ and legein ‘speak’. The tendency in English is to confine the sense to a conversation between two people, perhaps by associating the prefix dia- with di-. Dia- is also found in diameter (Late Middle English) ‘the measure across’; diaphanous (early 17th century) ‘shows through’; diaphragm (Late Middle English) a barrier that is literally a ‘fence through’, and diaspora (late 19th century) a scattering across.
- southernness
- Southern Ocean
- Southern Oscillation
- southern pine
- Southern Pines
- southern red lily
- Southern Rhodesia
- southern sea lion
- southern-side
- southern state
- Southern Tier
- southern-tinted
- Southern Triangle
- southernwood
- Southeyan
- Southey, Robert
- south-facing
- Southfield
- south-following
- South Gate
- South Georgia
- South Glamorgan
- south-going
- South Hadley
- south half