eli5: How come when referring to stuff that we can’t see and is more of a theory, ie: society, space-time, family unit, we refer to it as a “fabric”

Question

“The fabric of society”. “The fabric of time and space”. “The family fabric”. Etc.

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Answer 1

Fabric is being used as an analogy since these things do not have tangible or visible existences. However, it is being used as an analogy differently between these examples. There is nothing particularly unique about the word fabric or some kind of special reason why it’s used other than it’s a good analogy. If anything it’s actually misleading and kind of a buzzword, at least for space-time.