silk

The word 'silk' is one of the oldest trade words in the Germanic languages, attested in Old English ‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‍​‍​‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‍​‍​‌​‍as 'seolc' and 'sioloc,' with cognates across the Germanic family: Old Norse 'silki,' Old High German 'silecho,' Middle Low German 'silke.' The Proto-Germanic reconstruction *silką indicates that the word was borrowed into Germanic well before the historical period, likely during the early centuries of the Common Era when silk goods reached northern Europe via overland trade routes.

The ultimate source of the Germanic word is almost certainly Chinese 'sī' (丝), meaning 'silk thread, silk.' China was the sole producer of silk for millennia, and as the fabric traveled westward along what later became known as the Silk Road (a term coined by German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1877), the Chinese word for the material traveled with it, adapted by each language it passed through.

The exact path of transmission from Chinese into Proto-Germanic is debated. One hypothesis proposes Slavic intermediation: Old Church Slavonic 'šelkŭ' (silk) and Russian 'shyolk' (шёлк) suggest an early Slavic form that could have been borrowed into Germanic. Lithuanian 'šilkas' and Latvian 'zīds' (from a different source) indicate that the word circulated in the Baltic-Slavic linguistic area. Another hypothesis invokes Turkic or Mongolian intermediaries along the Central Asian trade routes. Mongolian 'sirkek' (silk) has been proposed as a stepping stone. The phonological details of the borrowing are difficult to resolve because of the great distances — geographical and temporal — involved.

The Graeco-Latin tradition for silk followed a different route. Greek 'Sḗr' (Σήρ, plural 'Sḗres,' Σῆρες) designated the people from whom silk came — the Chinese, or more precisely, the easternmost peoples known to the Greeks. The ethnic name produced Latin 'sēricus' (silken) and 'sēricum' (silk fabric), whence English 'sericin' (the protein in silk), 'sericulture' (silk farming), and 'serge' (a type of twilled fabric). These learned borrowings coexist in English with the Germanic-derived 'silk,' giving the language two etymological layers for the same material.

Silk production originated in China at least five thousand years ago. According to Chinese tradition, the legendary empress Leizu (also romanized as Xi Ling-shi) discovered silk around 2700 BCE when a silkworm cocoon fell into her tea and began to unravel. Whether or not this legend contains historical truth, archaeological evidence confirms that silk was being produced in China by the late fourth millennium BCE. The Chinese guarded the secret of sericulture jealously; according to tradition, smuggling silkworms or mulberry seeds out of China was punishable by death.

Silk reached the Mediterranean world by at least the sixth century BCE. Aristotle (fourth century BCE) described the silkworm with reasonable accuracy, and Roman writers expressed both admiration for silk's beauty and moral disapproval of its transparency and cost. Pliny the Elder complained that Roman women's desire for silk was draining the empire's gold to the East. The Justinian-era Byzantine Empire eventually acquired silkworm eggs (by tradition, smuggled from China by Nestorian monks in hollow bamboo canes around 552 CE), breaking the Chinese monopoly.

In English, 'silk' has generated a productive set of compounds and derivatives: 'silken' (made of silk, smooth), 'silky' (having the qualities of silk), 'silkworm,' 'silk screen,' 'silk road,' 'silk stocking' (a metaphor for wealth and aristocracy). The phrase 'you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear' (attested from 1514) uses silk as a metaphor for refinement and quality. In legal English, 'taking silk' means being appointed a King's or Queen's Counsel — from the silk gowns worn by senior barristers. The word's association with luxury, smoothness, and value has remained constant from its earliest attestations to the present day.