thistledown

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the soft, feathery hairs attached to ripe thistle seeds that help the wind carry them

   Thistledown drifted across the field in the afternoon breeze.

A compound of thistle + down, recorded in the sixteenth century. Down here means soft, fine, featherlike material, referring to the plumose pappus that carries a thistle's ripe seed on the wind.

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