the.com/onion skin
Paper so thin it photocopies your secrets and still survives the mailbox.
means A very thin, lightweight, often semi-translucent paper once used for carbon copies and airmail letters because it saved weight and let ink show through faintly.
from Named simply for its resemblance to the papery, crackly outer layers of an onion — thin, dry, and faintly see-through. The term took hold in English as such tissue-weight paper became common for typewritten carbon copies and overseas mail in the 1900s, prized because it was light enough to keep postage cheap and thin enough to let a typist stack several carbon sheets at once.
- origin use
- Named for resembling actual onion skins, thin and crinkly
- weight
- Typically 9 to 10 pounds, feather light for paper
- classic job
- Carbon-copy typing paper before computers existed
- animation trick
- Lends its name to onion skinning, seeing frames overlap