{"id":23010,"date":"2023-08-08T14:18:22","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T14:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23010"},"modified":"2023-08-08T14:18:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T14:18:23","slug":"goose-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23010","title":{"rendered":"Goose Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What links the word <strong>gossamer<\/strong> with <strong>geese<\/strong> and <strong>summer<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/marilynjane\/2495681838\/in\/photolist-4Nx2gd-QQRNbH-KybnRH-METTxq-KgEMHV-zaauwK-NPH6F-xXWQeW-L3f2oB-z5evpc-ycts7r-6kibb4-2mEGY4o-8uqsJk-7c8XFP-8cz8Ga-dewo2x-8cCqvu-dGt1po-2bJJJwK-79Ches-72hSDd-GVSDJ4-SrhSxE-LqZUxS-8YEcYC-oVziM5-2gkP4j5-AcwzVF-oepda9-aotbpv-ooF5K-qBVqf1-2jLF8dD-9aLKn4-5uavg7-dy5f8u-51AsP3-51weZ4-cnWs5-8q4EoQ-4DQKY-gmM66M-4AqoEZ-fK4NnW-e5WFso-5rkbau-gnBfDj-79feDP-EKtzw\" title=\"Cobweb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/2418\/2495681838_45f22d3f29_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"454\" alt=\"Cobweb\"><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gossamer<\/strong> means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a fine film or strand as of cobwebs, floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc.<\/li>\n<li>A soft, sheer fabric<\/li>\n<li>Anything delicate, light and flimsy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It comes from the Middle English <em>gossomer<\/em> (a filmy substance consisting of fine cobwebs, gossamer; a web or filament of gossamer;  something light, trivial, or worthless; a trivial wound), which is thought to come from <em>go(o)s<\/em> (goose, fool, idiot) and <em>somer<\/em> (summer). It first appeared in writing in about 1300, when it referred to cobwebs or other light things. Before that it may have referred to a period of warm weather in late autumn when geese were eaten, and later became associated with cobwebs  as they are somewhat similar to goose down [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/gossamer\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Related words include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>gossamered<\/strong> = cover with gossamer<\/li>\n<li><strong>gossamer spider<\/strong> = any small or young spider that spins webs by which to sail in the air.<\/li>\n<li><strong>gossamer-thin<\/strong> = light and thin; having a flimsy factual basis; unsubstantiated, hard to believe<\/li>\n<li><strong>gossamery<\/strong> = like gossamer; flimsy<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A period of warm weather in late autumn is also known as an <strong>Indian summer<\/strong>, a term which was first used in North America in the late 18th century. It\u2019s possible that Native Americans called it a form a summer as they harvested some late crops and were preparing for winter during this season, or that it was coined by Europeans and associated with the Native Americans\u2019 activities [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Indian_summer\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Other names for this period include <strong>St. Luke\u2019s summer<\/strong>, <strong>little summer of St. Luke<\/strong>, <strong>all-hallown summer<\/strong>, <strong>St. Martin\u2019s summer<\/strong> and <strong>Michaelmas summer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Do you know any other names for this period in English or other languages?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What links the word gossamer with geese and summer? Gossamer means: a fine film or strand as of cobwebs, floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc. A soft, sheer fabric Anything delicate, light and flimsy It comes from the Middle English gossomer (a filmy substance consisting of fine cobwebs, gossamer; a web or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,10,26,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-language","category-middle-english","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23010"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23014,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23010\/revisions\/23014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}