Did you
know?

diaphanous
adjective

- a diaphanous substance, especially cloth, is so delicate and thin that you can see through it

Cambridge Dictionary

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ORIGIN

1610s, from Medieval Latin diaphanus, from Greek diaphanes ‘transparent’, from dia ‘through’ + phainein ‘bring to light, cause to appear, show’.

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DRAMATICALLY DIAPHANOUS

'Diaphanous' is a very evocative word, such as in this fabulous sentence from Leo Tolstoy's epic War and Peace:

"The wide expanse that opened out before the heights on which the Russian batteries stood guarding the bridge was at times veiled by a DIAPHANOUS curtain of slanting rain, and then, suddenly spread out in the sunlight, far-distant objects could be clearly seen glittering as though freshly varnished."

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SYNONYMS

cobwebby, delicate, DIAPHANOUS, filmy, flimsy, gauzelike, gauzy, gossamer, gossamery, see-through, sheer, translucent, transparent, ultra-thin

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Practice OWAD in a conversation today, discuss something like:

"DIAPHANOUS fabrics allow fashion designers innumerable colour combinations.”

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Paul Smith