/ˈiː.θə/, /ˈi.θɚ/
OriginFrom Middle English ēther (“the caelum aetherum of ancient cosmology in which the planets orbit; a shining, fluid substance described as a form of air or fire; air”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman ether and Middle French ether, ethere, aether, from Old French aether (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; medium supposedly filling the upper regions of space”) (modern French éther), or directly from its etymon Latin aethēr (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; air; heavens, sky; light of day; ethereal matter surrounding a deity”) (note also New Latin aethēr (“chemical compound analogous to diethyl ether”)), from Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr, “purer upper air of the atmosphere; heaven, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light”), from αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“to burn; fire”).
The English word is cognate with Italian ether, ethera (both obsolete), etere, Middle Dutch ether (modern Dutch aether (obsolete), ether), German Äther, Ether, Portuguese éter, Spanish éter.
- broadly, countable, literary, poetic, uncountableThe medium breathed by human beings; the air.
“On Wings the Birds through Æther glide, / And Fiſhes cut with Fins the Tide.”
“Of the mysterious world, that come to me
From the elements of
Fire and Earth and Water,
And the all-nourishing Ether!”
- broadly, countable, literary, poetic, uncountableThe sky, the heavens; the void, nothingness.
“Take a snapshot of the conflicts around the world: Sunnis vs. Shiites, Israelis vs. Palestinians, Serbs vs. Kosovars, Indians vs. Pakistanis. They seem to be driven by religious hatred. It’s enough to”
“In barely the blink of an eye, the perfectly healthy Judy entered a permanent vegetative state. […] What haunted me was the idea that one moment you’re gazing at your 2-year-old in her playroom and th”
“There’s a very real chance that, rather than crumbling into the dust and floating off into the ether, Thanos’s victims [in the film Avengers: Infinity War] were actually sucked up into the Soul Stone.”
- historical, uncountableOften as aether and more fully as luminiferous aether: a substance once thought to fill all unoccupied space that allowed electromagnetic waves to pass through it and interact with matter, without exerting any resistance to matter or energy; its existence was disproved by the 1887 Michelson–Morley e…
“I ſuppose this æther pervades all groſs bodies, but yet ſo as to ſtand rarer in their pores than in free ſpaces, and ſo much the rarer, as their pores are leſs. And this I ſuppose (with others) to be ”
“Having ſhewn how the Æther cauſes a great part of the Phænomena of Nature, it may be aſked, whence this general material Cauſe has its great Activity and Power? […] This Cauſe muſt be either Matter or”
“The whole matter of the univerſe may be divided into atoms and æther. […] The latter, æther, is a ſubtile elaſtic fluid, whoſe particles have a continual tendency to ſeparate or fly off every way, unl”
- colloquial, uncountableThe atmosphere or space as a medium for broadcasting radio and television signals; also, a notional space through which Internet and other digital communications take place; cyberspace.
“H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness
He held some friendly chat with Pabodie over the ether, and repeated his praise of the really marvelous drills that had helped him make his discovery.”
“Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stu”
- colloquial, uncountableA particular quality created by or surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere, an aura.
“The luminous æther of his life was not obſcured by any ſhade dark enough to be denominated a defect.”
- uncountableDiethyl ether (C₄H₁₀O), an organic compound with a sweet odour used in the past as an anaesthetic.
“But the moſt valuable Qualities of the ÆTHER are it's medicinal ones; it having been found by repeated Experience to be an excellent Remedy in moſt nervous Diſeaſes; particularly in Fits of all ſorts,”
“The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge.”
- countableAny of a class of organic compounds containing an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrocarbon groups.
“M. Malaguti finds that dry chlorine, while acting in the dark upon oxacid æthers, always attacks, and in a uniform manner, the sulphuric æther which is the base of them. […] The action of potash on th”
“When chlorine gas is passed in excess through salicylic ether (salicylae of ethyl) heated over a water-bath, a solid substance is formed which is soluble in hot alcohol, and crystallizes, on cooling, ”
“[…] I allude to the æthers formed by the union of fatty acids with different alcohols. […] With regard to the fatty æthers themselves, I prepared them generally by M. Berthelot's method, by heating th”
- uncountableStarting fluid.
- alt-ofAlternative letter-case form of Ether.
“Gas is not ether–it's a separate virtual currency with its own exchange rate against ether.”
- A unit of the Ethereum digital currency, ETH.
“After more than 30 bids, the auction ended at 12:32 p.m. Eastern time, with a winning bid of 350 Ether, or about $560,000.”
- slang, transitiveTo viciously humiliate or insult.
“The battle rapper ethered his opponent and caused him to slink away in shame.”
“HS Coach Gets Ethered By Girlfriend On FB, Resigns Amid Investigation [article title] […] On Monday, a woman living in Bowling Green, Ky., used her Facebook page to unleash one of the coldest, boyfrie”
“Cory Barker: Game of Thrones is the easiest answer for me, but MaryAnn [Sleasman] did a fine job of ethering that overrated hunk of junk, so I'm free to take a few shots at Sherlock.”
- RomanThe god-personification of the bright, glowing upper air of heaven. He is the Roman counterpart of Aether.
- MormonismThe ancient American prophet of Mormon theology who wrote the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon.
Formsethers(plural) · æther(alternative, British, dated, obsolete) · aether(alternative, British, dated, obsolete) · aethyr(alternative, archaic) · ethyr(alternative, archaic) · ethers(present, singular, third-person) · ethering(participle, present) · ethered(participle, past) · ethered(past) · ether(plural) · Ether(plural) · ether(alternative)