ectoplasm
A visible substance believed to emanate from the body of a spiritualistic medium during communication with the dead.
Noun
- A visible substance believed to emanate from the body of a spiritualistic medium during communication with the dead.
- He saw again clearly enough[…]the doctor’s consulting room in the Avenida de la Revolución, visited for some drunken reason in the early hours of the morning, macabre with its pictures of ancient Spanish surgeons, their...
- Watching as the woman lifted her skirts and flung out ectoplasm, expelled it into a bowl, then brandished it around at her audience wildly. - 2021, Jenni Fagan, Luckenbooth, William Heinemann, page 131:
- An immaterial or ethereal substance, especially the transparent corporeal presence of a spirit or ghost.
- Then came some hollow groanings from inside the cabinet. The Spiritualists sat up expectantly. "That's ectoplasm," said Ogilvy. "It always causes pain on emission." - 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please...
- The outer granule-free layer of cytoplasm.
Origin
From ecto- (“outside”) + plasm or -plasm, referring to the fact that ectoplasm is believed to emanate from and materialize outside of the medium's body.