diaphane

Noun

diaphane (countable and uncountable, plural diaphanes)

1. Something transparent.
   • 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...
   • 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
2. A woven silk stuff with transparent and colored figures.
3. (Aristotelian philosophy) Essence 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
   • 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