silk

B1 Topic:General Vocabulary

US /sɪlk/ See IPA manual

Freq #4693

Meanings

1

noun
A soft, smooth, expensive cloth woven from threads made by silkworms.

She wore a beautiful dress made of silk.
2

noun
The fine thread produced by silkworms and some other insects and spiders.

A spider's web is made of incredibly strong silk.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms silks

Derived forms cornsilkcrow-silkdesilkfloss-silknonsilksilk-oaksilk-stockingsilkensilkersilkettesilkgrasssilkgrower

Appears in

Phrases (1)

See all

spun silk
Silk yarn made by spinning short fibers recovered from silk waste.

Adjective + noun

Proverbs (1)

See all

You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

Simplified etymology

Silk is recorded in Old English and ultimately derives, through several languages, from Seres, the Greek and Roman name for the distant Asian peoples from whose lands silk reached Europe.

Etymology

From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

silk Middle English sioloc Old English sēricus la-lat σηρικός Ancient Greek

View etymology graph ->

Topics

General Vocabulary

External links

# silk

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /sɪlk/
**Frequency rank:** 4693

## Meanings
1. A soft, smooth, expensive cloth woven from threads made by silkworms.
2. The fine thread produced by silkworms and some other insects and spiders.

## Examples
- She wore a beautiful dress made of silk.
- A spider's web is made of incredibly strong silk.

## Derived Forms
- cornsilk
- crow-silk
- desilk
- floss-silk
- nonsilk
- silk-oak
- silk-stocking
- silken
- silker
- silkette
- silkgrass
- silkgrower

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: silk
- Root: sioloc
- Root: sēricus
- Root: σηρικός

## Etymology
From Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge.

## AI Etymology
Silk is from Middle English silk, sylk, selk, selc, from Old English sioloc, seoloc, seolc (“silk”). The immediate source is uncertain; it probably reached English via the Baltic trade routes (cognates in Old Norse silki (> Danish silke, Swedish silke (“silk”)), Russian шёлк (šolk), obsolete Lithuanian zilkai̇̃), all ultimately from Late Latin sēricus, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós), ultimately from an Oriental language (represented now by e.g. Chinese 絲 /丝 (sī, “silk”)). Compare Seres. Doublet of seric and serge. Important forms in the word's history include Middle English silk, Old English sioloc, la-lat sēricus, Ancient Greek σηρικός. In current use it includes senses such as A soft, smooth, expensive cloth woven from threads made by silkworms and The fine thread produced by silkworms and some other insects and spiders.

## Topics
- General Vocabulary

markdown