Glassine

A recent post included the word "glassine." I am familiar with the glassine envelopes used in stamp collecting--envelopes made of a glossy transparent paper. I have never seen the word glassine used in any other way. Here is the sentence from Rick Bass's story: "That there is still something beneath the surface: that our souls and spirits are still of more worth, more value, than the glassine, latticed ice-structures visible only now at the surface of things." It appears glassine is being used as a synonym for glassy. Why not just say glassy?
Here are the citations of glassine's usage from the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary:

1916 W. W. Young Story of Cigarette vi. 98

Each carton is wrapped by hand in moisture-proof and germ-proof glassine paper and firmly sealed.

1925 Pulp & Paper Mag. 6 Aug 881

The manufacture of glassine paper requires great care, exceptionally clean raw materials, experienced labor, and specially designed machinery... Glassine is a paper which is made from very clean pulp, and which must be highly transparent.

1931 F. Hurst Back St. lviii. 507

Her dry mouth open, with a bubble, as if of glassine paper, spanning it.

1957 P. Mansfield Final Exposure xvi.

Enclosed in a glassine sheath, there lay a negative.

Ibid.244

The negative had been carefully released from the glassine envelope.

1970 S. Ellin Man from Nowhere xxxii. 155

He had stored Thoren's envelope and scrap paper in glassine packets.

Not a single stamp collecting reference in the lot.