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moth-wing

Fragile or fleeting — and a noun for the thing itself

Adjective and noun both, documented since 1823, and it carries its own evidence — you already know precisely how much weight a moth’s wing will take. Michelle Valois uses it on a 1573 nautical map worn down until “the paper is moth wing”; Harriet Monroe, writing in 1926, praised a talent “authentic and alive, however fragile.” Part of a week of words assembled out of animal parts.

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