silken

English

Etymology

From Middle English silken, selken, seolkene, from Old English seolcen, from seolc (“silk”) + -en, from an unattested early Proto-West Germanic borrowing from Latin sēricum, from Ancient Greek σηρικός (sērikós, “silken”), from σήρ (sḗr, “silkworm”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic”). Equivalent to silk +‎ -en (“made of”). Cognate with Scots selkin, silkin (“silken”), Icelandic silki (“silken”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪlkən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlkən
• Hyphenation: silk‧en

Adjective

silken (not comparable)

1. Made of silk.

   a silken veil

2. Synonym of silky, like silk, silklike, particularly
   1. Having a smooth, soft, or light texture.
      • 1646, Richard Crashaw, “Vpon Mr. Staninough’s Death”, in Steps to the Temple: Sacred Poems, with Other Delights of the Muses‎^[1], London: Humphrey Moseley, page 40:

        Come then youth, Beauty, and Blood, all ye soft powers, / Whose silken flatteryes swell a few fond houres.

      • 1791 (date written), Mary Wollstonecraft, “Of the Pernicious Effects which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions Established in Society”, in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 322:

        [L]ove is not to be bought, in any ſenſe of the vvords, its ſilken vvings are inſtantly ſhrivelled up vvhen any thing beſide a return in kind is ſought.

      • 1854 September – 1855 January, [Elizabeth Gaskell], chapter I, in North and South. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1855, →OCLC:

        […] in spite of the buzz in the next room, Edith had rolled herself up into a soft ball of muslin and ribbon, and silken curls, and gone off into a peaceful little after-dinner nap.

      • 1994, Stephen Fry, chapter 2, in The Hippopotamus, Random House, published 2010, page 37:

        He heard the silken rustle of a dressing-gown being drawn on.

   2. (figuratively, of speech or singing) Having a smooth, soft, or flowing utterance; attractive or (typically derogatory) convincing through pleasing expression.
      • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:

        Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, / Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, / Figures pedantical; these summer-flies / Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:

3. Dressed in silk.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     [S]hall a beardless boy, / A cocker’d silken wanton, brave our fields […] ?

   • c. 1593–1597, J[ohn] Donne, “Satyre I”, in Poems, […] with Elegies on the Authors Death, London: […] M[iles] F[lesher] for Iohn Marriot, […], published 1633, →OCLC, page 327:

     Yet though he cannot skip forth now to greet / Every fine silken painted foole we meet, / He then to him with amorous smiles allures,

   • 1724, Aaron Hill, The Plain Dealer, London: S. Richardson & A. Wilde, 1730, Volume 2, No. 81, 28 December, 1724, p. 197:^[2]

     Last Saturday was three Weeks, at Two, in the Afternoon, I sent out my Servant, to watch a Couple of these Silken Strollers, and keep, if possible, within Ken of them.

   • 1968, Jan Morris, chapter 10, in Pax Britannica: The Climax of Empire, London: Faber & Faber, published 2010, page 200:

     […] the Viceroy moved magnificently through India, resplendent with all the colour and dash of the vast Empire at his feet, with his superb bodyguard jangling scarlet beside his carriage, silken Indian princes bowing at his carpet, generals quivering at the salute and ceremonial salutes of thirty-one guns […]

Synonyms

• (made of silk): silk; seric (rare)

Derived terms

• silkenly
• silken tofu

 

Translations

made of silk

• Armenian: մետաքսյա (hy) (metakʻsya), մետաքսե (hy) (metakʻse), աբրեշումե (hy) (abrešume)
• Bulgarian: копринен (koprinen)
• Czech: hedvábný (cs)
• Dutch: zijden (nl)
• Esperanto: silka
• German: seiden (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: σηρικός (sērikós)

• Hungarian: selyem (hu)
• Ingrian: šulkkuin
• Italian: di seta, serico
• Old English: seolcen
• Polish: jedwabny (pl)
• Russian: шёлковый (ru) (šólkovyj)
• Spanish: de seda

smoothly spoken or sung

Verb

silken (third-person singular simple present silkens, present participle silkening, simple past and past participle silkened)

1. (transitive) To render silken or silklike.

   silkening body lotion

   • 1757, John Dyer, The Fleece, London: R. & J. Dodsley, Book I, lines 492-494, p. 30,^[3]

     Or, if your sheep are of Silurian breed,

     Nightly to house them dry on fern or straw,

     Silk’ning their fleeces.

   • 1987, Derek Walcott, “The Light of the World”, in The Arkansas Testament‎^[4], New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 48:

     […] these lights silkened her black skin:

Anagrams

• Kinsel, k-lines, Kliens, Lesnik, Elkins, Leskin, Likens, likens, inkles, klines

Middle English

Adjective

silken

1. Alternative form of selken

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

silken m

1. definite singular of silke

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

silken m

1. definite singular of silke