ether

The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.

Noun broadly, countable

  1. The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.
    • On Wings the Birds through Æther glide, / And Fiſhes cut with Fins the Tide. - 1746 February 28, Criticus [pseudonym], “Dialogue on Women”, in [Mark Akenside], editor, The Museum: Or, The Literary and Historical...
    • Of the mysterious world, that come to me From the elements of Fire and Earth and Water, And the all-nourishing Ether! - 1872, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Christus: A Mystery:

    1. (by extension) The medium breathed by human beings; the air.

    2. (by extension) The 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 make you wonder if...
      • 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 the next, you, the...
      • 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. - 2018 May 7, Meg...
  2. Often as aether and more fully as luminiferous aether: The hypothetical substance permeating space, functioning as a medium for electromagnetic waves to propagate through, and which does not exert resistance to the movement of matter; its existence is incompatible with Einstein's theory of relativity; famously found to be undetectable by the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment.
    • 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 the cauſe, why...
    • 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 Spirit, there...
    • 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, unleſs impreſſed by...
  3. The 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 stuck photographs of...
  4. A 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. - 1793, “[Characters.] An Account of the Late Earl of Mansfield.”, in The Annual Register, or A View of the History,...
  5. Diethyl 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, whether Epileptic,...
    • 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. - 1971, Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing...
  6. Any 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 the compound...
    • 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, in beautiful...
    • […] 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 the alcohol and the...
  7. Starting fluid.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ-der. Proto-Hellenic *áitʰō Ancient Greek αἴθω (aíthō) ▲ Ancient Greek ᾱ̓ήρ (āḗr)influ.? Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr)der. Latin aethērder. English ether From 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,...

Forms

ethers æther aether aethyr ethyr

Related

aetherial aetheric ethereal etherealisation etherealization etherealise etherealize ethereality ethereally etherealness firmament welkin

Derived

artemether crown ether decabromodiphenyl ether diether diethyl ether dimethyl ether diphenyl ether dithioether etherate ethereal ether engine Ethereum etherial etheric etherical etherification etheriform etherify etherin etherise etherize etherish etherism etherist

Noun business, cryptocurrencies

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Ether.
    • Gas is not ether–it's a separate virtual currency with its own exchange rate against ether. - 2018, Andreas M. Antonopoulos, Gavin Wood, Mastering Ethereum: Building Smart Contracts and DApps, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN:

Forms

ether

Verb slang, transitive

  1. To 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, boyfriend-crushingest Dear...
    • 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. - 2015 August 15, “Pass the Remote:...

    Synonyms: abase abash bring low confuse confound debase degrade demean depress disconcert discomfit dishonour embarrass humble humiliate lower mortify put to shame shame

Origin

From “Ether” (2001), a song by the American hip hop recording artist Nas (born 1973). According to Nas, the song, a diss track aimed at fellow artist Jay-Z (born 1969), was thus named because he was once told that ghosts and spirits do not like the fumes from ether (noun, sense 5), and he viewed the song as affecting Jay-Z in a similar way. The song contains the lines “I fuck with your soul like ether” and “That ether, that shit that make your soul burn slow”.

Forms

ethers ethering ethered

Verb UK, alt of

  1. Alternative form of edder.
    • Ether and Ethers (rhyme to whether)—the operation of running a line of hazle or other flexible wands intertwiningly along the top of a hedge, to keep it more firmly within the hedge-stakes. "Mind you ether it right...
    • In the edition of 1760 of "The Complete Angler" there is a curious quotation from Bowlker, who was a great authority on fish-ponds, in which he recommends:— "When you intend to stick a pool with carp or tench, make a...
    • The labourer still sits under the lew (hleow, or "hleowð," shelter, warmth) of the hedge, which has has been ethering ("eðer," a hedge); […] - 1895, John Richard de Capel Wise, The New Forest: Its History and Its...

Forms

ethers ethering ethered