diaphane

plural diaphanes

1. countableuncountableSomething transparent.

   Here, dragonflies of metallic emerald-gold or ruby iridescence froze in midair on almost-invisible wings of diaphane.

   2007, Cecilia Dart-Thornton, The Battle of Evernight: Bitterbynde 3, →ISBN

   3 more examples

   The corporal nature is deuided into bright and ſhining bodies, as earth and metalles: Eyther into Diaphane or tranſparent bodyes, as ayre and water.

   1561, Martin Cortes [i.e., Martín Cortés de Albacar], “Of the Generall Distinction of Creatures”, in Richard Eden, transl., The Arte of Nauigation: Conteynyng a Compendious Description of the Sphere, with the Makyng of Certen Instrumentes and Rules for Nauigations: and Exemplified by Manye Demonstrations. […], London: […] Richard Jugge, […], →OCLC, 1st parte (Which Entreateth of the Composition of the Worlde: […]), folio iv, verso

   And for man's life as the clear sparkling wine, Gladding the heart and lifting up the soul From its frail diaphane of petulant flesh, Yet whence doth flow this liquor of delight?

   1919, Donald F. Goold Johnson, Poems, page 71

   I moulded with my hands The mobile breasts, the valley; and the waist I touched; and pigments reverently placed Upon their thighs in sapient spots and stains, Beryls and crysolites and diaphanes, And gems whose hot harsh names are never said.

   2011, Valentine Cunningham, Victorian Poetry Now: Poets, Poems and Poetics, →ISBN

2. countableuncountableA woven silk stuff with transparent and colored figures.
3. countableuncountableAristotelian philosophyEssence or nature as encapsulated in a mental construct.

   The figure of the diaphane, "this clear crystal nature," is a person so perfect that his simple presence would do more for the world than others manage to do through their actions.

   2004, Didier Eribon, Insult and the Making of the Gay Self, →ISBN, page 168

   2 more examples

   Thus dreams and daydreams, stray thoughts, and all the other products of imagination are not simply inside one human brain; some are created by the diaphane of the person who experiences them, others come form outside, but all are projected onto the astral light.

   2008, John Michael Greer, The Druid Magic Handbook: Ritual Magic Rooted in the Living Earth, →ISBN

   What becomes a topic of conversation, what becomes the subject of publicly circulating discourses, is what lies beyond the senses — the land above the sky, the world of the dead, the other side of the diaphane.

   2010, Greg Urban, Metaphysical Community: The Interplay of the Senses and the Intellect, →ISBN