Isn’t it ironic?

‘A spider web’ by Cucumber Love

Howdy folks,

First of all, my deepest excuses for my absence, I’m on the verge of leaving for my desired holidays and I’m in a complete chaos. At risk of sounding banal, being a family woman, a worker and a blogger at the same time is not easy,  indeed it’s time-consuming and tiring, though exciting and challenging. In the end, one of the above mentioned tasks gets disregarded, obviously the one our lives do not depend on, i.e. blogging. I do love blogging, it has been a true discovery to me and it now takes up my leisure time (and sometimes my working time as well). It started as something different, but post by post, it slowly became what now I call a perfect fusion for the senses (words, music, visual art).  You may think I’m presumptuous, but let me feel a bit proud of what I’m doing here.

Now coming to my (pathologically late) post and to its odd title, today I’m going to introduce Wednesday’s selection by A.Word.A.Day (sorry, sorry, sorry!). You might ask yourselves: what’s the hell the title got to do with the word? Well, the music-related title (Ironic by Alanis Morissette, for the records) is a logical question when a non-English mom comes to hear this word (I’m a mom and I’m not a native English speaker).

gossamer

PRONUNCIATION:

(GOS-uh-muhr)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Something light, thin, or insubstantial.
2. A soft sheer gauzy fabric, used for veils, etc.
3. A fine, filmy cobweb or its thread seen floating in the air in calm weather.adjective:
Thin, light, or delicate.

ETYMOLOGY:

From goose + summer. The term is believed to have originated as a name for late autumn when geese are in season and then transferred to cobwebs seen around that time of the year. Earliest documented use: 1325.

USAGE:

“Indeed one dare not breathe near them for fear of breaking the gossamer visions, causing movement to disrupt our focus.”
Joan Stanley-Baker; Ephemeral Feminine Fibers of Chen Shu-yen; Taipei Times (Taiwan); Jul 11, 2004.

Italian translation:

1. sottile, delicato

2. tessuto sottile, impalpabile, trasparente

3. ragnatela sottile

The mom’s point of view (and the reason of the odd title): Gossamer is the name of a Looney Tunes  character,  a red, hairy, menacing and gigantic monster that represents the exact opposite of its name: isn’t it ironic?

Well, it’s Saturday night, it’s late, I’m sleepy and my head’s aching, so what should I say now?

That’s all folks!

Your passionate (Italian) Translator