gossamer - a podcast by Merriam-Webster

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for October 16, 2021 is: gossamer \GAH-suh-mer\ adjective
Gossamer means "extremely light, delicate, or tenuous."

// Except for a few gossamer clouds, the sky was clear and blue.

[See the entry >](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gossamer#h2)

Examples:

"The [dragonfly](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dragonfly) is our state insect…. As a beautiful predator with gossamer wings…, this insect deserves far more appreciation." — Barbara Hunt, The Mat-Su Valley (Alaska) Frontiersman, 2 Aug. 2021

Did you know?

In the days of Middle English, a period of mild weather in late autumn or early winter was sometimes called a [gossomer](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gossamer#etymology), literally "goose summer." People may have chosen that name for a late-season warm spell because October and November were the months when people felt that geese were at their best for eating. Gossomer was also used in Middle English as a word for filmy cobwebs floating through the air in calm, clear weather, apparently because somebody thought the webs looked like the down of a goose. This sense eventually inspired the adjective gossamer, which means "light, delicate, or tenuous"—just like cobwebs or goose down.

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