ethern.

Brit.

/ˈiːθə/, U.S.

/ˈiθər/

Forms: Middle English– ether, 1500s– aether (now rare), 1600s eather.

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French ether; Latin aether.

Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman and Middle French ether, ethere, Middle French aether (French éther ) most subtle and highest part of the atmosphere (12th cent. in Old French), medium supposed to fill the upper regions of space (1581 in the source translated in quot. 1587 at sense 2a, or earlier; the specific uses in physics and chemistry are not paralleled in French until later than in English: 1668 and 1742 respectively), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin aether upper regions of space, heaven, ethereal matter surrounding a deity, inhabitants of heaven, air, sky, upper air, light of day, in post-classical Latin also any of various chemical compounds analogous to diethyl ether (1760 in aether nitrosum , or earlier) < ancient Greek αἰθήρ heaven, sky, air < the base of αἴθειν to kindle, burn, shine (see aethionema n.); compare αἴθρα fair weather < the same base. Compare Spanish éter (1547), Italian etere (beginning of the 14th cent. as ether; also †ethera, feminine noun), and also Middle Dutch (late) ether (Dutch ether, †aether), Middle High German (rare) ēther (beginning of the 14th cent.; early modern German aether, ether, German Äther), all in a similar range of senses.Specific senses. Earlier currency in sense 2 is perhaps shown by the following quots., which could, however, alternatively be taken as showing spellings of air n.¹ (with þ for y ):?a1450 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (BL Add. 12056) (1894) 25 He [sc. an artery] myȝte brynge from þe longe eiþere [perh. read eire, a1400 Ashm. eir, L. aerem] to þe herte.c1450 in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1925) 40 245 Fisch in þe se & in oþer water & bryndis [perh. read brydes] in þe eiþer. The chemical use to denote a colourless volatile liquid (sense 5a) was introduced by the German-born British chemist A. S. Frobenius (fl. 1727–41) in his paper ‘An Account of a Spiritus Vini Æthereus’, the source cited in quot. 1730. Hence the word was borrowed into other European languages in chemical uses. Spelling history. The form aether is now only occasionally found, chiefly in historical contexts in physics. N.E.D. (1891) noted that the spelling aether was ‘still not uncommon’ in senses 1 and 2, occasionally occurred in sense 3, but in sense 5 (i.e. in chemistry) it was ‘the only form recognized by good authorities’. In quot. a1398¹ at sense 1 showing the Latin accusative singular form.

I. In literal, physical senses.

1. In ancient cosmological speculation: an element conceived as filling all space beyond the sphere of the moon, and being the constituent substance of the stars and planets and of their spheres (sphere n. 2a). Now historical.Ether was variously regarded as a purer form of fire or of air, or as differing in kind from all of the four elements. By some it was imagined to be the constituent substance, or one of the constituents, of the soul.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > alchemy > alchemical elements > [noun] > ether

ethera1398

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. viii. ii. 447 By þat name ethera is vndirstonde al þe space þat is fro þe mone anon to þe sterres..in þe whiche space beþ roundenes and cercles [of] þe seuene planetis.]

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. viii. v. 455 Isidir seiþ þe ouere parties of fuyre and of ayer hatte ether.

1573 T. Cooper Briefe Expos. f. 89 All that is aboue vs is deuyded into two partes, the one called Aether, which is the vpper part of the Firmament wherein the Starres & Planets are, the other called the Aire.

1631 R. Fludd Answer vnto M. Foster ii. iii. 68 This diuine and incorruptible spirit..is in man, for without it hee is dead..: his place therefore, or the heauen wherein it moueth, is our Æther, or heauenly spirit.

1678 R. Cudworth tr. St. Augustine in True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 493 The Pagans answer thus..we call God in the Æther Jupiter [L. Quia Jovem (inquiunt) in Aethere accipimus].

1695 S. Patrick Comm. Genesis i. 7 The thinner parts..made the æther, or higher firmament, wherein the sun and the planets are seated.

1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 420. ¶3 Those unfathomable Depths of Ether.

1799 S. Vince Compl. System. Astron. II. 253 They [sc. the Brahmins] thought the stars moved, and the planets they called fishes, because they moved in the ether, as fishes do in water.

1872 G. S. Morris tr. F. Ueberweg Hist. Philos. I. §49. 167 The nature of the Ether (which extends from the heaven of the fixed stars down to the moon) adapts it especially for circular motion.

1916 Pop. Astron. 24 364 Plato considered that the stars, chiefly formed of fire, move through the ether, a particularly pure form of air.

2003 D. Leverington Babylon to Voyager & Beyond i. 16 A wall of fiery ether surrounding the universe.., along with the central fire, provided the universe with light and heat.

2. Chiefly literary.

a. The clear sky; the upper regions of space beyond the clouds; the medium supposed to fill the upper regions of space, as the air fills the lower regions.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > space > [noun]

heavensOE

heavenOE

space1561

space1582

ether1587

the deep1598

depth1613

void1667

empyrean1879

1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. ix. 139 What will hee answere to Plato, who saith that the Heauen or Skye is called Aether.

1658 E. Ashmole Way to Bliss ii. i. 48 Those that lead their lives in the cleaner Element do live the longer... Winged ones, yet longer, because the higher, the better Air still: Insomuch that Cardan dares think, that if any dwell in Aether, as Plato's heirs affirm, they live for ever.

1718 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad IV. xvi. 361 All th' unmeasured Aether flames with Light.

1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xix. 431 Through ether down she darted.

1813 W. Scott Bridal of Triermain iii. xxv. 169 The wizard song at distance died As if in ether borne astray.

1855 H. W. Longfellow Hiawatha xvii. 236 The people..Saw the wings of Pau-Puk-Keewis Flapping far up in the ether.

1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems lxiv. 206 The Ocean shook, and stormy the stars 'gan tremble in ether.

1911 B. Keightley tr. R. Steiner Mystics of Renaissance 250 Neither..in the æther above, nor in the development of living creatures, can this natural science henceforth seek for anything but sensible, matter-of-fact processes.

1931 A. Uttley Country Child (1936) x. 142 Her voice floated across the trees through the silvery atoms of air and the mysterious ether to the great moon.

2000 D. McCombs Ultima Thule 4 A comet, smoky, pestilent, streaks across the Ether.

b. spec. The refined medium supposed to surround God or the gods in heaven; the refined element supposed to be breathed in heaven or by the gods.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > gas > air > [noun] > as breathed by gods

ether1689

1689 W. Sherlock Pract. Disc. Death i. §2. 52 Gross earthly Bodies, as we now carry about with us, cannot live and subsist in those pure regions of Light and Glory, which God inhabits; no more than you can lodge a stone in the Air, or breathe nothing but pure Æther.

1733 A. Pope Ess. Man iii. 115 What'ere of Life all-quickening Æther keeps..one Nature feeds The vital Flame.

1858 A. H. Clough Amours de Voyage in Atlantic Monthly Feb. 419 A land wherein gods of the old time wandered, Where every breath even now changes to ether divine.

1896 R. Hovey Along Trail (1899) iii. 69 The clear ether where the angels are.

1971 D. E. W. Wormell in H. Bardon & R. Verdière Vergiliana 434 The bees are vouchsafed a part of the divine mind and breathe the pure aether.

2006 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 9 June e2 Were they suddenly whisked off into the humming glorious divine ether in one big orgiastic load of divine redemption?

c. Air; the gaseous substance that is breathed; a form of this.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > gas > air > [noun]

windc1250

airc1300

windiness1587

blore?1614

ethereal1661

ambient1677

ether1713

Ewigkeit1877

1713 Guardian 1 May 2/2 They sucked in so condensed and poisonous an Aether.

1752 F. Fawkes Descr. May 17 From every flower ambrosial sweets distill'd, Ambrosial sweets the ambient æther fill'd.

1809 N. Pinkney Trav. South of France 277 His senses are hailed..by the freshness of a pure æther.

1854 W. E. Aytoun Firmilian ix. 90 How now, Firmilian!—I am scant of breath; These steps have pumped the ether from my lungs.

1915 C. G. Herbine Meeting of Spheres 1919 i. 6 Love is as necessary as the ether you breathe.

1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse II. iv. xxvii. 377 The captain was already moving in spheres without parallels, a diviner ether and an ampler air.

2007 Light of Consciousness Spring 31 The very air no longer supports us as we are used to. The ether is changing. Everything is changing.

a. Physics. An extremely rarefied and elastic substance formerly thought to permeate all space, including the interstices between the particles of ordinary matter, and (in later use) to be the medium by whose vibrations light and other electromagnetic radiation is propagated. Also more fully luminiferous ether. Now historical.Later views of the ether were that it provided an absolute frame of reference for the universe, with respect to which Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism or other field equations are valid, but that it possibly lacked any material properties. Following the negative result of the Michelson–Morley experiment (see Michelson–Morley n. 1) in 1887, and the proposal of the special theory of relativity by Einstein in 1905 (which assumed that there is no such frame of reference), the concept was gradually discarded.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > diffused matter > [noun] > ether

ether1644

1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xxxii. 281 The Ether..like an immense Ocean, tossed with all varieties of motion.

1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. 31 These Phænomena are produced either by the intervention of air or Æther or other such medium, that communicates the Impulse from one Body to another.

a1727 I. Newton Opticks (1730) iii. i. 326 Æther (like our Air) may contain Particles which endeavour to recede from one another.

1778 Dict. Arts & Sci. Æther, an imaginary fluid, supposed by several authors, both ancient and modern, to be the cause of gravity, heat, light, muscular motion, and, in a word, of every phænomenon in nature..Perrault represents it as 7200 times more rare than air; and Hook makes it more dense than gold itself.

1802 T. Young in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 92 14 A luminiferous Ether pervades the Universe, rare and elastic in a high degree.

1872 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (ed. 6) ix. 219 The vibrations of ether..constitute the physical basis of light.

1887 A. A. Michelson & E. W. Morley in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 34 341 It appears..reasonably certain that if there be any relative motion between the earth and the luminiferous ether, it must be small.

1910 Pop. Sci. Monthly Aug. 112 Einstein abandons the ether, which he declares to be the totally unnecessary conception.

1951 E. T. Whittaker Hist. Theories Aether & Electr. (ed. 2) I. p. v It seems absurd to retain the name ‘vacuum’ for an entity so rich in physical properties, and the historical word ‘aether’ may fitly be retained.

1995 C. Sagan Demon-haunted World xxiii. 391 Many physicists were deeply troubled by the demise of the ‘luminiferous’ aether. They had needed some mechanical model to make the whole notion of the propagation of light in a vacuum..understandable.

2008 Sci. News 19 July 2/3 The Higgs simply must exist. It's as sure a bet as the existence of ether was at the end of the 19th century.

b. colloquial. The atmosphere or space as the medium through which radio or television is broadcast. Now also: the internet or other computer network as the medium of digital communication.

ΘΚΠ

society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > [noun] > the air as medium

ether1917

air1922

1917 Pop. Sci. Monthly July 3/1 Each actor is equipped with a tiny wireless telephone transmitter, and his speech is sent through the ether by ‘radio’ to a receiving station.

1930 J. Huxley Bird-watching & Bird Behaviour p. vii A..request I made over the ether for more information.

1968 Listener 4 July 26/1 The authentic atmosphere, the enthusiasm, ease and élan, can be felt over the ether, but it's even better on TV.

1997 T3 Feb. 61/3 Digital video and audio signals—whether on disc, tape, squirted down cables or broadcast through the ether—are sent as streams of numbers, simple binary digits.

2012 Winnipeg Free Press 18 Feb. j6/1 What can possibly replace collections of writers' letters? Will the messages of today's literary folk simply be lost in the ether?

4. Any of various extremely rarefied or intangible substances imagined or inferred to exist; cf. aura n. 2, 3. Now historical.In later use influenced by sense 3a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > gas > [noun] > fumes or vapour > types of fume or vapour > subtle exhalation

ether1691

aura1732

1691 E. Taylor J. Behmen's Theosophick Philos. xvi. 22 The Elements themselves pass into their Ethers.

1758 B. Langrish Plain Direct. in Regard Small-pox 27 The acrimonious, putrid Salts..stimulate the Nerves in a violent Degree, and very often seize on the subtile Æther within them so as to occasion immediate Death.

a1839 S. T. Coleridge & J. Gillman Hints towards Theory of Life (1848) 34 I must reject fluids and ethers of all kinds, magnetical, electrical, and universal, to whatever quintessential thinness they may be treble distilled.

1878 J. C. Maxwell in Encycl. Brit. VIII. 569/1 Æthers were invented for the planets to swim in, to constitute electric atmospheres and magnetic effluvia, to convey sensations from one part of our bodies to another, and so on.

1983 S. MacLaine Out on Limb vii. 105 All the universe is supposedly composed of ethers—that is, gaseous energies which have varying electromagnetic vibrational properties.

2004 B. Bunch & A. Hellemans Hist. Sci. & Technol. 387/1 Different scientists postulated different aethers as needed, so there was an aether for heat, another for gravity, another for the magnetic force, and so forth.

5. Chemistry.

a. A sweet-smelling, volatile, flammable liquid made by distilling ethanol with sulphuric acid and used as a solvent, as an intermediate in chemical synthesis, and (esp. formerly) as a general anaesthetic. Also called diethyl ether.Systematic names: diethyl ether (cf. sense 5c), ethoxyethane; (CH₃CH₂)₂O. Also called (esp. formerly) common ether, ethyl ether, ethylic ether, sulphuric ether, etc.: see the first element.

ΘΚΠ

the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > anaesthetic > [noun] > general > specific drugs

common ether1675

laughing gas1819

chloral1838

chloroform1838

urethane1838

ether1847

letheon1847

kerosolene1861

gas1868

pental1891

tubocurarine1898

chloretone1899

hedonal1900

Avertin1927

Evipan1932

Pentothal1935

Trilene1935

hexobarbitone sodium1941

hexobarbitone soluble1941

thiopentone1945

thiopental sodium1947

fluothane1955

halothane1957

methohexital sodium1958

phencyclidine1959

methohexitone1961

hexobarbitone1962

propanidid1964

etorphine1966

enflurane1971

sodium methohexital1978

1730 A. S. Frobenius in Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 286 Æther then is certainly the most noble, efficacious and useful Instrument in all Chymistry and Pharmacy,..inasmuch as Essences and essential Oils are extracted by it immediately, without so much as the Mediation of Fire, from Woods, Barks, Roots, [etc.].

1781 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 71 516 I have froze a quantity of water with an equal weight of good ether.

1802 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) II. 897 I prefer ether in small quantities with camphorated Julep.

1847 J. Y. Simpson in Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Apr. 795 The inhalation of ether procured for the patient a more or less perfect immunity from the conscious pain and suffering attendant upon labour.

1877 F. T. Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 63 Ether dissolves the fat and brings the striæ again into view.

1933 A. W. Barton Text Bk. Heat vii. 154 A little ether is poured into the left-hand tube and is caused to evaporate by drawing bubbles of air through it.

1964 J. Stewart tr. G. Simenon Maigret Mystified (1974) ii. 33 The room..in spite of the open window, was pervaded by a sickly smell of ether.

1969 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 117 92/2 Twenty-three experiments were performed: five controls without an anesthetic agent, six with ether, six with halothane and six with chloroform.

2006 J. M. Hornback Org. Chem. (Internat. Student ed.) v. 167 Mixtures of ether and air can be explosive. For this reason, ether has been replaced as an anesthetic by less hazardous compounds.

b. Any of a large number of neutral, volatile organic compounds (chiefly esters but also including halides, anhydrides, etc.) prepared in a similar manner to diethyl ether, typically by the reaction of ethanol or another alcohol with an acid or with a salt or other compound in the presence of sulphuric acid. Now chiefly historical except as in sense 5c.Frequently with modifying word indicating the source compound, as acetic ether, butyric ether, chloric ether, citric ether, muriatic ether, nitric ether, nitrous ether, oenanthic ether, tartaric ether, etc. For these and also compound, petroleum ether: see the first element.

ΚΠ

1756 W. Cullen in Ess. & Observ. (Philos. Soc. Edinb.) II. 155 In another experiment made with the nitrous æther, when the heat of the air was about 53 degrees, we set the vessel containing the æther in another a little larger containing water.

1788 J. St. John tr. L. B. Guyton de Morveau et al. Method Chym. Nomencl. 53 Thus shall we say nitric ether, acetic ether, &c.

1819 A. Rees Cycl. XIII. at Ether Formic ether has an agreeable odour, similar to that of peach blossoms.

1833 Penny Cycl. I. 158 The acids which occasion the formation of the æthers already described do not enter at all into their composition.

1876 Encycl. Brit. V. 571/2 Acid Halides..may be regarded as the haloid ethers of acid radicles.

1921 Chem. & Metall. Engin. 2 Feb. 208/1 Dry acetic ether (ethyl acetate) is the best solvent available with petroleum pastes.

1962 M. P. Crosland Hist. Stud. Lang. Chem. v. i. 289 The authors [of the Méthode de nomenclature chimique (1787)] had decided that each of the aetherial compounds obtained by the reaction of alcohol with various acids should be known as ‘ether’ qualified by an adjective... Most of these ‘ethers’ were what we should now call esters.

1991 Pharmacy in Hist. 33 70/1 It was Bells's advocacy of chloric ether that has secured him an enduring place in the history of anesthesia.

c. Any of a class of organic compounds (typified by diethyl ether) having a molecule in which two alkyl or aryl groups are linked by an oxygen atom.Ethers have the general formula R₂O (with identical groups R) or R′OR″ (with different groups).Frequently in names, with modifying word(s) indicating the groups present, as dimethyl ether, ethyl methyl ether, ethyl phenyl ether, etc.crown ether: see the first element.

ΘΚΠ

the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > ether > [noun]

ether1852

ethyl ether1852

1852 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1851 i. 130 If the term, compound ether, be retained at all, it should be restricted to bodies like those produced by Williamson, in which a simple ether is united with an ether radical, as the oxide of ethyl with methyl or with amyl.]

1852 A. W. Williamson in Q. Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 4 108 This has been verified in the case of the three-carbon ether, which may be obtained indifferently by replacing one-fourth of the hydrogen of methylic alcohol by C²H⁵, or by replacing one-sixth of the hydrogen of common alcohol by CH³. Its rational formula is, therefore, C²H⁵CH³O.

1922 J. J. Sudborough Bernthsen's Text-bk. Org. Chem. (new ed.) 90 Several ethers with unsaturated alcohol radicals are also known, e.g...vinyl-ethyl ether.

1950 L. F. Fieser & M. Fieser Org. Chem. (ed. 2) vi. 134 Ethers are regarded more appropriately as derivatives of alcohols, from which they usually are prepared.

1977 J. March Adv. Org. Chem. (ed. 2) xviii. 1050 Allyl aryl ethers, when heated, rearrange to o-allylphenols in a reaction called the Claisen rearrangement.

2004 Metro (Toronto) 12 Aug. 10/4 They tested salmon meat for polybrominated diphenyl ethers..used as flame-retardant additives in electronics and furniture.

II. figurative. Chiefly literary.

6. Something likened to ether (esp. in senses 3, 4); the distinctive quality or character that seems to surround or be generated by a person, thing, or place; aura, ambience, atmosphere.

ΘΚΠ

the world > the universe > diffused matter > [adjective] > ether

ethereal1651

ether1791

etheric1798

etheriform1834

etherical1920

1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1763 I. 228 My mind was..strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian æther.

1793 Scots Mag. Aug. 373/1 The luminous æther of his life was not obscured by any shade dark enough to be denominated a defect.

1797 M. Robinson Walsingham II. xxxv. 158 This is mixing the gall of severity with the light ether of wit.

1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion vi. 286 Penitential tears Shed when the clouds had gathered and distained The spotless ether of a maiden life.

1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus i. viii. 19/2 We are—we know not what;—light-sparkles floating in the æther of Deity!

1835 I. Taylor Spiritual Despotism viii. 352 Measures which would have reduced the papal authority out of Italy to a thin ether visible to none but the clergy.

1847 E. A. Poe Ulalume in Amer. Rev. Dec. 599 She rolls through an ether of sighs.

1928 J. Galsworthy Swan Song iii. v, in Mod. Comedy (1929) 723 She floats in an ether of her own.

1965 I. Feldman Pripet Marshes 3 So the mind above its theater, on Restless wing aloof, circles In a thin ether of pain.

1997 C. Shields Larry's Party xiii. 257 Larry supposes that this bed and all its disintegrating erotic ether will soon be covered over with one of Stacey's cheerful woolen creations.

Phrases

colloquial. to disappear (also vanish, etc.) into the ether: to disappear suddenly from sight or existence; = to vanish (melt, etc.) into thin air at thin adj. 3b. Similarly to appear (materialize, etc.) out of the ether.

ΚΠ

1892 Westm. Rev. 137 404 Such important factors in our food supply..without which the whole fabric of our society vanishes into the ether.

1928 Logansport (Indiana) Press 4 Nov. 5/5 Within a few minutes of delivery ‘the goods’ are being taken out... And the racketeers disappear into the ether.

1960 J. P. Powelson National Income & Flow-of-funds Anal. xix. 438 Somehow, the benefits are thought to have materialized out of the ether!

1987 Times 12 Feb. 2/1 He hit the wrong buttons on his computer terminal... Hours of work disappeared into the ether.

2013 R. Parker in R. Parker & D. Middlewood Reality of School Leadership ii. 35 A big mistake..is..assuming that the perfect job will somehow magically appear out of the ether.

Compounds

C1. General attributive.

a. In sense 3a, as ether vibration, ether wave, etc.

ΚΠ

1846 Philos. Mag. 28 347 If the aether particles be without this force..then they are more material, in the abstract sense, than the matter of this our globe.

1850 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 37 453 It is theoretically impossible that a reversion of the aether-vibrations,..can take place when there is no layer of air between the glasses.

1879 G. Allen Colour-sense i. 2 We must find out how the various modes of æther-waves..came originally to be distinguished from one another.

1925 O. Lodge Ether & Reality ii. 42 Fearfully rapid tremors or ether vibrations which can be excited electrically in a form which we know as X-rays.

1931 H. S. Williams Bk. of Marvels 62 The energy that comes to us from the sun through this ocean of ether-filled space comes in the form of ether-waves, traveling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second.

2001 S. Hong Wireless 193 He..considered that it did not violate, but rather supplemented, Maxwell's theory, because the electron was a strain center in the ether, or a rather a locality from which ether strain radiated.

b. In sense 5, as ether solution, ether spray, ether vapour, etc.

ΚΠ

1847 Chem. Gaz. 1 Mar. 89 Whether we assume this body to contain cyanic or cyanuric acid, it does not possess a composition analogous to that of the other æther compounds.

1870 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) I. v. ix. 611 Æther-narcosis produces the loss of ‘1. The local sensibility of extreme parts..2. The intellectual powers’.

1873 J. P. Cooke New Chem. (1874) i. 18 And the globe will hold just as much ether-vapor as if neither of the other two were present.

1879 H. Spencer Data of Ethics x. §64. 177 By ether-spray it [sc. an external part of the body] is made very cold.

1907 G. M. Norman Systematic Pract. Org. Chem. i. vi. 24 Dry ammonia is passed into the ether solution, and the aldehyde ammonia which separates is collected on the filter pump.

1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. vi. xix. 199 Extraction from ether solution with hydrochloric acid solutions of different strengths..shows that there are two acidic products.

1974 J. B. Finean et al. Membranes & Cellular Functions vi. 96 The long chain substituents in the glycerolipids are almost entirely phytol chains which are linked to the 2- and 3-positions..by ether linkages.

1982 A. F. Wallace Progress Plastic Surg. xvi. 145 They began to use intratracheal insufflation, a technique which entailed driving ether vapour..through a gum elastic catheter placed in the trachea.

1991 R. Mistry Such Long Journey (1992) 164 He enumerated the items he wanted on the menu..while directing a cold ether spray over the spot to be injected.

2009 Sunday Times (Nexis) 18 Jan. 40 Joshua Compston..died of an ether overdose in 1996.

C2.

ether drift n. History of Science the expected movement of the earth or an observer through the ether (sense 3a), failure to detect which (in the Michelson–Morley experiment of 1887 and subsequently) led to the concept of the Lorentz contraction and eventually to Einstein's special theory of relativity.See the note at sense 3a.

ΚΠ

1892 Engineer 10 June 499/2 This result, however, did not prove the existence or non-existence of an ether drift relative to the earth.

1921 R. W. Lawson tr. A. Einstein Relativity xvi. 62 For a long time the efforts of physicists were devoted to attempts to detect the existence of an æther-drift at the earth's surface.

1998 Isis 89 269 Historical studies of this nature have taken it as a major issue to understand whether Einstein drew on the Michelson–Morley ether-drift experiment.

2005 I. R. Morus When Physics became King ix. 278 They had been carrying out an experiment to try to detect the movement of the Earth through the ether and had come up with a null result—they could not find the ether drift they were searching for.

ether extract n. Chemistry a solution made by dissolving a substance in ether; (also) a residue obtained by subsequently removing the ether by evaporation or filtration.

ΚΠ

1861 Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1860 20 102 An accurate separation of the several bodies which compose this ether extract, would have increased the labor of analysis.

1861 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 41 70 The dried ether extract..was placed upon a glass slide, and nitric acid added to it under the microscope.

1898 Butchers' Advocate 17 Aug. 11/3 The so-called fat, i.e., ether extract, is never absolutely pure fat. In the case of meat..the ether extract contains some nitrogenous material.

1924 J. B. Cohen Pract. Org. Chem. (ed. 3) 253 The ether extract is then dried over potassium carbonate and the ether removed by distillation on the water-bath.

2002 M. H. Jurgens Animal Feeding & Nutrition (ed. 9) ii. 73 The different fractions that result from the proximate analysis include water, ash, crude protein, ether extract, crude fiber and nitrogen-free extract.

ether wind n. History of Science = ether drift n.

ΚΠ

1894 Philos. Trans. 1893 (Royal Soc.) A. 184 801 Reflected sunshine..will have to travel against (or with) the ether wind precisely as if it came from a terrestrial source.

1926 B. Russell ABC of Relativity iii. 31 If there is an aether wind, it is clear that, relatively to an observer on the earth, light-signals will seem to travel faster with the wind than across it.

1998 Isis 89 269 Einstein..had ample reasons for doubting the existence of an ether wind in 1905.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	ether
释义	ethern. Brit. /ˈiːθə/, U.S. /ˈiθər/ Forms: Middle English– ether, 1500s– aether (now rare), 1600s eather. Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French ether; Latin aether. Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman and Middle French ether, ethere, Middle French aether (French éther ) most subtle and highest part of the atmosphere (12th cent. in Old French), medium supposed to fill the upper regions of space (1581 in the source translated in quot. 1587 at sense 2a, or earlier; the specific uses in physics and chemistry are not paralleled in French until later than in English: 1668 and 1742 respectively), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin aether upper regions of space, heaven, ethereal matter surrounding a deity, inhabitants of heaven, air, sky, upper air, light of day, in post-classical Latin also any of various chemical compounds analogous to diethyl ether (1760 in aether nitrosum , or earlier) < ancient Greek αἰθήρ heaven, sky, air < the base of αἴθειν to kindle, burn, shine (see aethionema n.); compare αἴθρα fair weather < the same base. Compare Spanish éter (1547), Italian etere (beginning of the 14th cent. as ether; also †ethera, feminine noun), and also Middle Dutch (late) ether (Dutch ether, †aether), Middle High German (rare) ēther (beginning of the 14th cent.; early modern German aether, ether, German Äther), all in a similar range of senses.Specific senses. Earlier currency in sense 2 is perhaps shown by the following quots., which could, however, alternatively be taken as showing spellings of air n.¹ (with þ for y ):?a1450 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (BL Add. 12056) (1894) 25 He [sc. an artery] myȝte brynge from þe longe eiþere [perh. read eire, a1400 Ashm. eir, L. aerem] to þe herte.c1450 in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1925) 40 245 Fisch in þe se & in oþer water & bryndis [perh. read brydes] in þe eiþer. The chemical use to denote a colourless volatile liquid (sense 5a) was introduced by the German-born British chemist A. S. Frobenius (fl. 1727–41) in his paper ‘An Account of a Spiritus Vini Æthereus’, the source cited in quot. 1730. Hence the word was borrowed into other European languages in chemical uses. Spelling history. The form aether is now only occasionally found, chiefly in historical contexts in physics. N.E.D. (1891) noted that the spelling aether was ‘still not uncommon’ in senses 1 and 2, occasionally occurred in sense 3, but in sense 5 (i.e. in chemistry) it was ‘the only form recognized by good authorities’. In quot. a1398¹ at sense 1 showing the Latin accusative singular form. I. In literal, physical senses. 1. In ancient cosmological speculation: an element conceived as filling all space beyond the sphere of the moon, and being the constituent substance of the stars and planets and of their spheres (sphere n. 2a). Now historical.Ether was variously regarded as a purer form of fire or of air, or as differing in kind from all of the four elements. By some it was imagined to be the constituent substance, or one of the constituents, of the soul. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > alchemy > alchemical elements > [noun] > ether ethera1398 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. viii. ii. 447 By þat name ethera is vndirstonde al þe space þat is fro þe mone anon to þe sterres..in þe whiche space beþ roundenes and cercles [of] þe seuene planetis.] a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. viii. v. 455 Isidir seiþ þe ouere parties of fuyre and of ayer hatte ether. 1573 T. Cooper Briefe Expos. f. 89 All that is aboue vs is deuyded into two partes, the one called Aether, which is the vpper part of the Firmament wherein the Starres & Planets are, the other called the Aire. 1631 R. Fludd Answer vnto M. Foster ii. iii. 68 This diuine and incorruptible spirit..is in man, for without it hee is dead..: his place therefore, or the heauen wherein it moueth, is our Æther, or heauenly spirit. 1678 R. Cudworth tr. St. Augustine in True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 493 The Pagans answer thus..we call God in the Æther Jupiter [L. Quia Jovem (inquiunt) in Aethere accipimus]. 1695 S. Patrick Comm. Genesis i. 7 The thinner parts..made the æther, or higher firmament, wherein the sun and the planets are seated. 1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 420. ¶3 Those unfathomable Depths of Ether. 1799 S. Vince Compl. System. Astron. II. 253 They [sc. the Brahmins] thought the stars moved, and the planets they called fishes, because they moved in the ether, as fishes do in water. 1872 G. S. Morris tr. F. Ueberweg Hist. Philos. I. §49. 167 The nature of the Ether (which extends from the heaven of the fixed stars down to the moon) adapts it especially for circular motion. 1916 Pop. Astron. 24 364 Plato considered that the stars, chiefly formed of fire, move through the ether, a particularly pure form of air. 2003 D. Leverington Babylon to Voyager & Beyond i. 16 A wall of fiery ether surrounding the universe.., along with the central fire, provided the universe with light and heat. 2. Chiefly literary. a. The clear sky; the upper regions of space beyond the clouds; the medium supposed to fill the upper regions of space, as the air fills the lower regions. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > space > [noun] heavensOE heavenOE space1561 space1582 ether1587 the deep1598 depth1613 void1667 empyrean1879 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. ix. 139 What will hee answere to Plato, who saith that the Heauen or Skye is called Aether. 1658 E. Ashmole Way to Bliss ii. i. 48 Those that lead their lives in the cleaner Element do live the longer... Winged ones, yet longer, because the higher, the better Air still: Insomuch that Cardan dares think, that if any dwell in Aether, as Plato's heirs affirm, they live for ever. 1718 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad IV. xvi. 361 All th' unmeasured Aether flames with Light. 1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xix. 431 Through ether down she darted. 1813 W. Scott Bridal of Triermain iii. xxv. 169 The wizard song at distance died As if in ether borne astray. 1855 H. W. Longfellow Hiawatha xvii. 236 The people..Saw the wings of Pau-Puk-Keewis Flapping far up in the ether. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus Poems lxiv. 206 The Ocean shook, and stormy the stars 'gan tremble in ether. 1911 B. Keightley tr. R. Steiner Mystics of Renaissance 250 Neither..in the æther above, nor in the development of living creatures, can this natural science henceforth seek for anything but sensible, matter-of-fact processes. 1931 A. Uttley Country Child (1936) x. 142 Her voice floated across the trees through the silvery atoms of air and the mysterious ether to the great moon. 2000 D. McCombs Ultima Thule 4 A comet, smoky, pestilent, streaks across the Ether. b. spec. The refined medium supposed to surround God or the gods in heaven; the refined element supposed to be breathed in heaven or by the gods. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > gas > air > [noun] > as breathed by gods ether1689 1689 W. Sherlock Pract. Disc. Death i. §2. 52 Gross earthly Bodies, as we now carry about with us, cannot live and subsist in those pure regions of Light and Glory, which God inhabits; no more than you can lodge a stone in the Air, or breathe nothing but pure Æther. 1733 A. Pope Ess. Man iii. 115 What'ere of Life all-quickening Æther keeps..one Nature feeds The vital Flame. 1858 A. H. Clough Amours de Voyage in Atlantic Monthly Feb. 419 A land wherein gods of the old time wandered, Where every breath even now changes to ether divine. 1896 R. Hovey Along Trail (1899) iii. 69 The clear ether where the angels are. 1971 D. E. W. Wormell in H. Bardon & R. Verdière Vergiliana 434 The bees are vouchsafed a part of the divine mind and breathe the pure aether. 2006 San Francisco Chron. (Nexis) 9 June e2 Were they suddenly whisked off into the humming glorious divine ether in one big orgiastic load of divine redemption? c. Air; the gaseous substance that is breathed; a form of this. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > gas > air > [noun] windc1250 airc1300 windiness1587 blore?1614 ethereal1661 ambient1677 ether1713 Ewigkeit1877 1713 Guardian 1 May 2/2 They sucked in so condensed and poisonous an Aether. 1752 F. Fawkes Descr. May 17 From every flower ambrosial sweets distill'd, Ambrosial sweets the ambient æther fill'd. 1809 N. Pinkney Trav. South of France 277 His senses are hailed..by the freshness of a pure æther. 1854 W. E. Aytoun Firmilian ix. 90 How now, Firmilian!—I am scant of breath; These steps have pumped the ether from my lungs. 1915 C. G. Herbine Meeting of Spheres 1919 i. 6 Love is as necessary as the ether you breathe. 1933 H. Allen Anthony Adverse II. iv. xxvii. 377 The captain was already moving in spheres without parallels, a diviner ether and an ampler air. 2007 Light of Consciousness Spring 31 The very air no longer supports us as we are used to. The ether is changing. Everything is changing. 3. a. Physics. An extremely rarefied and elastic substance formerly thought to permeate all space, including the interstices between the particles of ordinary matter, and (in later use) to be the medium by whose vibrations light and other electromagnetic radiation is propagated. Also more fully luminiferous ether. Now historical.Later views of the ether were that it provided an absolute frame of reference for the universe, with respect to which Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism or other field equations are valid, but that it possibly lacked any material properties. Following the negative result of the Michelson–Morley experiment (see Michelson–Morley n. 1) in 1887, and the proposal of the special theory of relativity by Einstein in 1905 (which assumed that there is no such frame of reference), the concept was gradually discarded. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > diffused matter > [noun] > ether ether1644 1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xxxii. 281 The Ether..like an immense Ocean, tossed with all varieties of motion. 1693 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. vii. 31 These Phænomena are produced either by the intervention of air or Æther or other such medium, that communicates the Impulse from one Body to another. a1727 I. Newton Opticks (1730) iii. i. 326 Æther (like our Air) may contain Particles which endeavour to recede from one another. 1778 Dict. Arts & Sci. Æther, an imaginary fluid, supposed by several authors, both ancient and modern, to be the cause of gravity, heat, light, muscular motion, and, in a word, of every phænomenon in nature..Perrault represents it as 7200 times more rare than air; and Hook makes it more dense than gold itself. 1802 T. Young in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 92 14 A luminiferous Ether pervades the Universe, rare and elastic in a high degree. 1872 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (ed. 6) ix. 219 The vibrations of ether..constitute the physical basis of light. 1887 A. A. Michelson & E. W. Morley in Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 34 341 It appears..reasonably certain that if there be any relative motion between the earth and the luminiferous ether, it must be small. 1910 Pop. Sci. Monthly Aug. 112 Einstein abandons the ether, which he declares to be the totally unnecessary conception. 1951 E. T. Whittaker Hist. Theories Aether & Electr. (ed. 2) I. p. v It seems absurd to retain the name ‘vacuum’ for an entity so rich in physical properties, and the historical word ‘aether’ may fitly be retained. 1995 C. Sagan Demon-haunted World xxiii. 391 Many physicists were deeply troubled by the demise of the ‘luminiferous’ aether. They had needed some mechanical model to make the whole notion of the propagation of light in a vacuum..understandable. 2008 Sci. News 19 July 2/3 The Higgs simply must exist. It's as sure a bet as the existence of ether was at the end of the 19th century. b. colloquial. The atmosphere or space as the medium through which radio or television is broadcast. Now also: the internet or other computer network as the medium of digital communication. ΘΚΠ society > communication > telecommunication > radio communications > [noun] > the air as medium ether1917 air1922 1917 Pop. Sci. Monthly July 3/1 Each actor is equipped with a tiny wireless telephone transmitter, and his speech is sent through the ether by ‘radio’ to a receiving station. 1930 J. Huxley Bird-watching & Bird Behaviour p. vii A..request I made over the ether for more information. 1968 Listener 4 July 26/1 The authentic atmosphere, the enthusiasm, ease and élan, can be felt over the ether, but it's even better on TV. 1997 T3 Feb. 61/3 Digital video and audio signals—whether on disc, tape, squirted down cables or broadcast through the ether—are sent as streams of numbers, simple binary digits. 2012 Winnipeg Free Press 18 Feb. j6/1 What can possibly replace collections of writers' letters? Will the messages of today's literary folk simply be lost in the ether? 4. Any of various extremely rarefied or intangible substances imagined or inferred to exist; cf. aura n. 2, 3. Now historical.In later use influenced by sense 3a. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > gas > [noun] > fumes or vapour > types of fume or vapour > subtle exhalation ether1691 aura1732 1691 E. Taylor J. Behmen's Theosophick Philos. xvi. 22 The Elements themselves pass into their Ethers. 1758 B. Langrish Plain Direct. in Regard Small-pox 27 The acrimonious, putrid Salts..stimulate the Nerves in a violent Degree, and very often seize on the subtile Æther within them so as to occasion immediate Death. a1839 S. T. Coleridge & J. Gillman Hints towards Theory of Life (1848) 34 I must reject fluids and ethers of all kinds, magnetical, electrical, and universal, to whatever quintessential thinness they may be treble distilled. 1878 J. C. Maxwell in Encycl. Brit. VIII. 569/1 Æthers were invented for the planets to swim in, to constitute electric atmospheres and magnetic effluvia, to convey sensations from one part of our bodies to another, and so on. 1983 S. MacLaine Out on Limb vii. 105 All the universe is supposedly composed of ethers—that is, gaseous energies which have varying electromagnetic vibrational properties. 2004 B. Bunch & A. Hellemans Hist. Sci. & Technol. 387/1 Different scientists postulated different aethers as needed, so there was an aether for heat, another for gravity, another for the magnetic force, and so forth. 5. Chemistry. a. A sweet-smelling, volatile, flammable liquid made by distilling ethanol with sulphuric acid and used as a solvent, as an intermediate in chemical synthesis, and (esp. formerly) as a general anaesthetic. Also called diethyl ether.Systematic names: diethyl ether (cf. sense 5c), ethoxyethane; (CH₃CH₂)₂O. Also called (esp. formerly) common ether, ethyl ether, ethylic ether, sulphuric ether, etc.: see the first element. ΘΚΠ the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > anaesthetic > [noun] > general > specific drugs common ether1675 laughing gas1819 chloral1838 chloroform1838 urethane1838 ether1847 letheon1847 kerosolene1861 gas1868 pental1891 tubocurarine1898 chloretone1899 hedonal1900 Avertin1927 Evipan1932 Pentothal1935 Trilene1935 hexobarbitone sodium1941 hexobarbitone soluble1941 thiopentone1945 thiopental sodium1947 fluothane1955 halothane1957 methohexital sodium1958 phencyclidine1959 methohexitone1961 hexobarbitone1962 propanidid1964 etorphine1966 enflurane1971 sodium methohexital1978 1730 A. S. Frobenius in Philos. Trans. 1729–30 (Royal Soc.) 36 286 Æther then is certainly the most noble, efficacious and useful Instrument in all Chymistry and Pharmacy,..inasmuch as Essences and essential Oils are extracted by it immediately, without so much as the Mediation of Fire, from Woods, Barks, Roots, [etc.]. 1781 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 71 516 I have froze a quantity of water with an equal weight of good ether. 1802 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) II. 897 I prefer ether in small quantities with camphorated Julep. 1847 J. Y. Simpson in Monthly Jrnl. Med. Sci. Apr. 795 The inhalation of ether procured for the patient a more or less perfect immunity from the conscious pain and suffering attendant upon labour. 1877 F. T. Roberts Handbk. Med. (ed. 3) I. 63 Ether dissolves the fat and brings the striæ again into view. 1933 A. W. Barton Text Bk. Heat vii. 154 A little ether is poured into the left-hand tube and is caused to evaporate by drawing bubbles of air through it. 1964 J. Stewart tr. G. Simenon Maigret Mystified (1974) ii. 33 The room..in spite of the open window, was pervaded by a sickly smell of ether. 1969 Amer. Jrnl. Surg. 117 92/2 Twenty-three experiments were performed: five controls without an anesthetic agent, six with ether, six with halothane and six with chloroform. 2006 J. M. Hornback Org. Chem. (Internat. Student ed.) v. 167 Mixtures of ether and air can be explosive. For this reason, ether has been replaced as an anesthetic by less hazardous compounds. b. Any of a large number of neutral, volatile organic compounds (chiefly esters but also including halides, anhydrides, etc.) prepared in a similar manner to diethyl ether, typically by the reaction of ethanol or another alcohol with an acid or with a salt or other compound in the presence of sulphuric acid. Now chiefly historical except as in sense 5c.Frequently with modifying word indicating the source compound, as acetic ether, butyric ether, chloric ether, citric ether, muriatic ether, nitric ether, nitrous ether, oenanthic ether, tartaric ether, etc. For these and also compound, petroleum ether: see the first element. ΚΠ 1756 W. Cullen in Ess. & Observ. (Philos. Soc. Edinb.) II. 155 In another experiment made with the nitrous æther, when the heat of the air was about 53 degrees, we set the vessel containing the æther in another a little larger containing water. 1788 J. St. John tr. L. B. Guyton de Morveau et al. Method Chym. Nomencl. 53 Thus shall we say nitric ether, acetic ether, &c. 1819 A. Rees Cycl. XIII. at Ether Formic ether has an agreeable odour, similar to that of peach blossoms. 1833 Penny Cycl. I. 158 The acids which occasion the formation of the æthers already described do not enter at all into their composition. 1876 Encycl. Brit. V. 571/2 Acid Halides..may be regarded as the haloid ethers of acid radicles. 1921 Chem. & Metall. Engin. 2 Feb. 208/1 Dry acetic ether (ethyl acetate) is the best solvent available with petroleum pastes. 1962 M. P. Crosland Hist. Stud. Lang. Chem. v. i. 289 The authors [of the Méthode de nomenclature chimique (1787)] had decided that each of the aetherial compounds obtained by the reaction of alcohol with various acids should be known as ‘ether’ qualified by an adjective... Most of these ‘ethers’ were what we should now call esters. 1991 Pharmacy in Hist. 33 70/1 It was Bells's advocacy of chloric ether that has secured him an enduring place in the history of anesthesia. c. Any of a class of organic compounds (typified by diethyl ether) having a molecule in which two alkyl or aryl groups are linked by an oxygen atom.Ethers have the general formula R₂O (with identical groups R) or R′OR″ (with different groups).Frequently in names, with modifying word(s) indicating the groups present, as dimethyl ether, ethyl methyl ether, ethyl phenyl ether, etc.crown ether: see the first element. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > chemistry > organic chemistry > ether > [noun] ether1852 ethyl ether1852 1852 Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1851 i. 130 If the term, compound ether, be retained at all, it should be restricted to bodies like those produced by Williamson, in which a simple ether is united with an ether radical, as the oxide of ethyl with methyl or with amyl.] 1852 A. W. Williamson in Q. Jrnl. Chem. Soc. 4 108 This has been verified in the case of the three-carbon ether, which may be obtained indifferently by replacing one-fourth of the hydrogen of methylic alcohol by C²H⁵, or by replacing one-sixth of the hydrogen of common alcohol by CH³. Its rational formula is, therefore, C²H⁵CH³O. 1922 J. J. Sudborough Bernthsen's Text-bk. Org. Chem. (new ed.) 90 Several ethers with unsaturated alcohol radicals are also known, e.g...vinyl-ethyl ether. 1950 L. F. Fieser & M. Fieser Org. Chem. (ed. 2) vi. 134 Ethers are regarded more appropriately as derivatives of alcohols, from which they usually are prepared. 1977 J. March Adv. Org. Chem. (ed. 2) xviii. 1050 Allyl aryl ethers, when heated, rearrange to o-allylphenols in a reaction called the Claisen rearrangement. 2004 Metro (Toronto) 12 Aug. 10/4 They tested salmon meat for polybrominated diphenyl ethers..used as flame-retardant additives in electronics and furniture. II. figurative. Chiefly literary. 6. Something likened to ether (esp. in senses 3, 4); the distinctive quality or character that seems to surround or be generated by a person, thing, or place; aura, ambience, atmosphere. ΘΚΠ the world > the universe > diffused matter > [adjective] > ether ethereal1651 ether1791 etheric1798 etheriform1834 etherical1920 1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1763 I. 228 My mind was..strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian æther. 1793 Scots Mag. Aug. 373/1 The luminous æther of his life was not obscured by any shade dark enough to be denominated a defect. 1797 M. Robinson Walsingham II. xxxv. 158 This is mixing the gall of severity with the light ether of wit. 1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion vi. 286 Penitential tears Shed when the clouds had gathered and distained The spotless ether of a maiden life. View more context for this quotation 1834 T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus i. viii. 19/2 We are—we know not what;—light-sparkles floating in the æther of Deity! 1835 I. Taylor Spiritual Despotism viii. 352 Measures which would have reduced the papal authority out of Italy to a thin ether visible to none but the clergy. 1847 E. A. Poe Ulalume in Amer. Rev. Dec. 599 She rolls through an ether of sighs. 1928 J. Galsworthy Swan Song iii. v, in Mod. Comedy (1929) 723 She floats in an ether of her own. 1965 I. Feldman Pripet Marshes 3 So the mind above its theater, on Restless wing aloof, circles In a thin ether of pain. 1997 C. Shields Larry's Party xiii. 257 Larry supposes that this bed and all its disintegrating erotic ether will soon be covered over with one of Stacey's cheerful woolen creations. Phrases colloquial. to disappear (also vanish, etc.) into the ether: to disappear suddenly from sight or existence; = to vanish (melt, etc.) into thin air at thin adj. 3b. Similarly to appear (materialize, etc.) out of the ether. ΚΠ 1892 Westm. Rev. 137 404 Such important factors in our food supply..without which the whole fabric of our society vanishes into the ether. 1928 Logansport (Indiana) Press 4 Nov. 5/5 Within a few minutes of delivery ‘the goods’ are being taken out... And the racketeers disappear into the ether. 1960 J. P. Powelson National Income & Flow-of-funds Anal. xix. 438 Somehow, the benefits are thought to have materialized out of the ether! 1987 Times 12 Feb. 2/1 He hit the wrong buttons on his computer terminal... Hours of work disappeared into the ether. 2013 R. Parker in R. Parker & D. Middlewood Reality of School Leadership ii. 35 A big mistake..is..assuming that the perfect job will somehow magically appear out of the ether. Compounds C1. General attributive. a. In sense 3a, as ether vibration, ether wave, etc. ΚΠ 1846 Philos. Mag. 28 347 If the aether particles be without this force..then they are more material, in the abstract sense, than the matter of this our globe. 1850 London, Edinb., & Dublin Philos. Mag. 37 453 It is theoretically impossible that a reversion of the aether-vibrations,..can take place when there is no layer of air between the glasses. 1879 G. Allen Colour-sense i. 2 We must find out how the various modes of æther-waves..came originally to be distinguished from one another. 1925 O. Lodge Ether & Reality ii. 42 Fearfully rapid tremors or ether vibrations which can be excited electrically in a form which we know as X-rays. 1931 H. S. Williams Bk. of Marvels 62 The energy that comes to us from the sun through this ocean of ether-filled space comes in the form of ether-waves, traveling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. 2001 S. Hong Wireless 193 He..considered that it did not violate, but rather supplemented, Maxwell's theory, because the electron was a strain center in the ether, or a rather a locality from which ether strain radiated. b. In sense 5, as ether solution, ether spray, ether vapour, etc. ΚΠ 1847 Chem. Gaz. 1 Mar. 89 Whether we assume this body to contain cyanic or cyanuric acid, it does not possess a composition analogous to that of the other æther compounds. 1870 H. Spencer Princ. Psychol. (ed. 2) I. v. ix. 611 Æther-narcosis produces the loss of ‘1. The local sensibility of extreme parts..2. The intellectual powers’. 1873 J. P. Cooke New Chem. (1874) i. 18 And the globe will hold just as much ether-vapor as if neither of the other two were present. 1879 H. Spencer Data of Ethics x. §64. 177 By ether-spray it [sc. an external part of the body] is made very cold. 1907 G. M. Norman Systematic Pract. Org. Chem. i. vi. 24 Dry ammonia is passed into the ether solution, and the aldehyde ammonia which separates is collected on the filter pump. 1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. vi. xix. 199 Extraction from ether solution with hydrochloric acid solutions of different strengths..shows that there are two acidic products. 1974 J. B. Finean et al. Membranes & Cellular Functions vi. 96 The long chain substituents in the glycerolipids are almost entirely phytol chains which are linked to the 2- and 3-positions..by ether linkages. 1982 A. F. Wallace Progress Plastic Surg. xvi. 145 They began to use intratracheal insufflation, a technique which entailed driving ether vapour..through a gum elastic catheter placed in the trachea. 1991 R. Mistry Such Long Journey (1992) 164 He enumerated the items he wanted on the menu..while directing a cold ether spray over the spot to be injected. 2009 Sunday Times (Nexis) 18 Jan. 40 Joshua Compston..died of an ether overdose in 1996. C2. ether drift n. History of Science the expected movement of the earth or an observer through the ether (sense 3a), failure to detect which (in the Michelson–Morley experiment of 1887 and subsequently) led to the concept of the Lorentz contraction and eventually to Einstein's special theory of relativity.See the note at sense 3a. ΚΠ 1892 Engineer 10 June 499/2 This result, however, did not prove the existence or non-existence of an ether drift relative to the earth. 1921 R. W. Lawson tr. A. Einstein Relativity xvi. 62 For a long time the efforts of physicists were devoted to attempts to detect the existence of an æther-drift at the earth's surface. 1998 Isis 89 269 Historical studies of this nature have taken it as a major issue to understand whether Einstein drew on the Michelson–Morley ether-drift experiment. 2005 I. R. Morus When Physics became King ix. 278 They had been carrying out an experiment to try to detect the movement of the Earth through the ether and had come up with a null result—they could not find the ether drift they were searching for. ether extract n. Chemistry a solution made by dissolving a substance in ether; (also) a residue obtained by subsequently removing the ether by evaporation or filtration. ΚΠ 1861 Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1860 20 102 An accurate separation of the several bodies which compose this ether extract, would have increased the labor of analysis. 1861 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. 41 70 The dried ether extract..was placed upon a glass slide, and nitric acid added to it under the microscope. 1898 Butchers' Advocate 17 Aug. 11/3 The so-called fat, i.e., ether extract, is never absolutely pure fat. In the case of meat..the ether extract contains some nitrogenous material. 1924 J. B. Cohen Pract. Org. Chem. (ed. 3) 253 The ether extract is then dried over potassium carbonate and the ether removed by distillation on the water-bath. 2002 M. H. Jurgens Animal Feeding & Nutrition (ed. 9) ii. 73 The different fractions that result from the proximate analysis include water, ash, crude protein, ether extract, crude fiber and nitrogen-free extract. ether wind n. History of Science = ether drift n. ΚΠ 1894 Philos. Trans. 1893 (Royal Soc.) A. 184 801 Reflected sunshine..will have to travel against (or with) the ether wind precisely as if it came from a terrestrial source. 1926 B. Russell ABC of Relativity iii. 31 If there is an aether wind, it is clear that, relatively to an observer on the earth, light-signals will seem to travel faster with the wind than across it. 1998 Isis 89 269 Einstein..had ample reasons for doubting the existence of an ether wind in 1905. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < n.a1398
随便看	to etc one's head to etc one's head above water to etc one's head against a brick wall to etc one's head out of one's arse to etc one's head out of one's ass to etc one's heart out to etc one's laughing gear around something to etc one's leg to etc one's life to etc one's livery to etc one's living to etc one's load to etc one's luck to etc one's mansion to etc one's merry way to etc one's mind off to etc one's mind off from to etc one's mood to etc one's nap to etc one's nose in to etc one's nose into to etc one's oar in to etc one's oats to etc one's penance to etc one's penny good silver