cotton wool vs gossamer

cotton wool

noun
  • Soft, absorbent cotton for medical or cosmetic use, protective padding, etc. 

  • Raw fibers of cotton before being processed. 

gossamer

noun
  • A soft, sheer fabric. 

  • Anything delicate, light and flimsy. 

  • A fine film or strand as of cobwebs, floating in the air or caught on bushes, etc. 

adj
  • Tenuous, light, filmy or delicate. 

How often have the words cotton wool and gossamer occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )