the.com/silkiness
the texture so smooth it taught language how to flatter itself.
means The quality of being silky — soft, smooth, and gliding to the touch or the senses.
from From 'silk' plus the abstract suffixes '-y' and '-ness.' 'Silk' traces back to Old English 'sioloc' or 'seoloc,' likely borrowed along the trade routes from a Greek-Latin word for the substance ('serikos,' meaning 'of the Seres' — the people the ancient Mediterranean knew as the source of the precious thread, generally identified with China). So the word itself, like the fabric, came west from the East. '-ness' is the homegrown English suffix that turns a quality into a noun, so 'silkiness' is the abstract idea of being silk-like.
- spider scale
- Spider silk beats steel pound for pound in strength.
- liquid first
- Silk leaves the gland as liquid, hardens on contact.
- smooth science
- Silkiness comes from light bouncing off triangular fibers.
- royal monopoly
- China guarded silk secrets under penalty of death.
- sound check
- Real silk squeaks when rubbed, called the scroop.
angora rabbit fur — produces hair measuring 10-16 micrometers in diameter, among the softest natural fibers on earth
mulberry silk fabric — created from bombyx mori cocoons, with a smoothness coefficient of 0.96 due to its triangular prism structure
sea otter fur — densest mammal fur at 1 million hairs per square inch, with a texture prized for its slip and gloss