Silkened

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Possessing a soft and glossy texture reminiscent of silk
2. Enhanced to exhibit a smooth and shiny quality similar to that of silk
3. Treated or altered to acquire a texture that is smooth and glossy like silk

Etymology: "Silkened" is simply "silken" with the regular past-tense ending added, so the word's real story is the history of "silken" itself. The adjective "silken" came into Middle English as "silken" or "selken", descended from Old English "seolcen", which meant "made of silk". That Old English form was built from "seolc", meaning silk, plus the suffix "-en", a common way of forming adjectives meaning "made of" a material, as in "wooden" or "golden". The Old English "seolc" was itself a borrowing. It traces back to Late Latin "sericum", which came from Ancient Greek "sērikós", meaning silken, derived from "sḗr", the word for silkworm. The Greek word ultimately reaches back to a Chinese term for silk, which is why "silk" and its relatives entered European languages through trade routes from East Asia.

Synonyms: smooth, softened

Antonyms: roughened