silk
/sɪlk/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms silks silking silked
- noun (chiefly uncountable) A fine fiber excreted by the silkworm or other arthropod (such as a spider). “We harvested a load of silk from the silkworm farm.”
- noun A thread or yarn made from silk fibers. “This is sewn from silk.”
- noun A fine, soft cloth woven from silk yarn or thread. “I'll buy a couple yards of silk.”
- noun (circus arts, in the plural) A pair of long silk sheets suspended in the air on which a performer performs tricks. “She's a master with the silks.”
- noun A parachute.
- noun An article of clothing made from silk cloth. “He's wearing his silk.”
- noun (horse racing, usually in the plural) The garments worn by a jockey displaying the colors of the horse's owner.
- noun The gown worn by a Senior (i.e., Queen's/King's) Counsel.
- verb (intransitive, agriculture, of corn) To develop silk.
- verb (transitive, cooking) To remove the silk from (corn).
- proper noun A surname originating as an occupation for a seller of silk.
Etymology
From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Displaced Old English sīde (“silk”). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The fine, soft thread produced by various species of caterpillars in forming the cocoons within which the worm is inclosed during the pupa state, especially that produced by the larvæ of Bombyx mori.
- noun Hence, thread spun, or cloth woven, from the above-named material.
Etymology [OE. silk, selk, AS. seolc, seoloc; akin to Icel. silki, SW. & Dan. silke; prob. through Slavic from an Oriental source; cf. Lith. szilkai, Russ. shelk', and also L. sericum Seric stuff, silk. Cf. Sericeous. Serge a woolen stuff.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “silk”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details