the.com/silken
a word that feels like it sounds, smooth enough to slide off the tongue
means Made of silk, or resembling silk in being soft, smooth, and lustrous to the touch or eye.
from From Old English 'seolcen,' the adjective form of 'seolc' (silk) — the '-en' ending being the same one that gives us 'wooden' and 'golden,' meaning 'made of.' The root 'silk' itself traveled an astonishing distance: it likely entered Germanic and Slavic tongues from the Greek 'sērikos,' 'pertaining to the Seres,' the ancient name for the silk-producing people of the Far East, ultimately China. So the very softness of the word carries, faintly, the memory of the long road the thread itself once took westward.
- origin
- From silk, itself from the Greek 'Seres,' meaning China
- actual strength
- Silk fiber rivals steel by weight
- texture trick
- Smoothness comes from triangular fibers reflecting light
- tofu cousin
- Silken tofu is named for its delicate, custardy feel
silken tofu — chinese custard-like tofu with 80% water content, softest variety
silken road — ancient trade route from china to mediterranean, 4,000+ miles of commerce
silken underwing moth — north american moth species with distinctive silk-like hindwings