A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1469 entries
gossamer
Gossamer is the fine spider silk that drifts through the air and settles on grass and hedges in still autumn weather. It is produced by tiny spiders, mostly money spiders, that climb to a high point, raise the abdomen, release a line, and let the electrostatic charge and the rising air lift them off. This is called ballooning, and it carries spiders for hundreds of miles and to great altitudes.
Etymology
The word appears to be goose summer. The best explanation is that it named the warm spell in late autumn when geese were traditionally eaten in England, which is also exactly when the drifting silk appears, and the name of the season transferred to the silk. Several European languages tie the same threads to the same season and to the Virgin Mary, and German calls it altweibersommer, old wives’ summer.
Notes
Ballooning spiders have been collected from aircraft at 15,000 feet and were among the first animals to reach Krakatoa after the 1883 eruption sterilized it. Darwin recorded them landing on the Beagle sixty miles offshore. The lift is not purely aerodynamic; spiders can detect the atmospheric electric field and take off in still air on the charge alone.