etherealityn.
/ᵻˌθɪərɪˈalᵻti/, U.S. /ᵻˌθɪriˈælədi/, /ɛˌθɪriˈælədi/ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > social class > nobility > title > title or form of address for persons of rank > [noun] > mock title
sir1362
Mas'1575
gallantship1579
elderberriness1589
excelsitude1599
bellyship1600
rascalship1605
madamship1620
muttonship1632
merchantshipa1640
minxshipa1640
prerogativeship1645
fairship1647
mayorship1648
his tallness1656
curship1663
goodyship1663
Mamamouchi1672
lowness1687
ghostship?1689
lairdship1715
grandship1747
supremacy1766
honourableship1767
beautyship1772
gravityship1772
titularity1777
lordship1800
ethereality1806
elegancy1819
king1823
accidency1830
transparency1844
1806 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life I. vii. 144 If your Etheriality can condescend to take any interest in such earthly stuff.
2. The quality or state of being ethereal; lightness, delicacy, or refinement that does not appear to belong to this world; otherworldliness. Cf. earlier etherealness n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > materiality > immateriality > [noun]
incorporality1601
incorporeity1601
impalpability1605
unbodiliness1611
immateriality1629
etherealness1727
ethereality1811
immaterialism1824
etherealism1827
bodilessness1838
incorporeality1846
non-materiality1846
intangibility1847
unfleshlinessa1859
1811 P. B. Shelley St. Irvyne vii. 142 As she conversed with her daughter, a fire, which almost partook of ethereality, shone in her sunken eye.
1818 Clydesdale Mag. July 120/2 Destroy that language—reduce its communications to the dry round of mechanical bargain-making, and you have fairly uprooted the whole aetheriality of its nature.
1828 E. Bulwer-Lytton Pelham III. ix. 137 Dismount me, and I become a mere clod of the earth..fire, energy, ethereality have departed.
1859 G. Wilson Gateways Knowl. (ed. 3) 48 A certain etheriality thus belongs pre-eminently to music.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture I. 412 The original conception of the human soul seems to have been that of ethereality, or vaporous materiality.
1897 F. Thompson in Academy 20 Nov. 427/2 Crashaw..is no poet of the human and household emotions... But how fecund is his brilliant imagery, rapturous ethereality.
1910 C. J. Whitby Makers of Man 401 Rivalling Shelley in the exquisite æthereality of his imagination.
1927 V. Woolf Diary 30 June (1980) III. 144 They [sc. colours] came back..with a miraculous glittering & aetheriality.
1962 J. E. Miller Reader's Guide to Herman Melville vi. 122 Pierre's robust love and strength of passion are far too vigorous for Lucy's fragile ethereality.
1977 C. J. Rawson in M. E. Novak Eng. Lit. in Age of Disguise ii. 68 The poem may seem to warn the Strephons against poetic fictions which impute aethereality to the fair sex.
2002 W. Kennedy Roscoe 90 She was photographed in a white parlor of her home, wearing a white, off-the-shoulder evening dress..that..gave her an aura of ethereality.
3. An ethereal thing, being, or idea. Usually in plural.In quots. 1819, 1839 pieces of scenery representing the sky.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > substantiality or concreteness > unsubstantiality or abstractness > [noun] > unsubstantiality or lack of substance > something lacking substance
breathc1275
winda1382
vapour1382
cloudc1384
gossamer?a1400
webc1400
comedown1583
bubble1598
anatomy1605
carcass1612
intentional1658
blank1678
ethereality1819
breath bubble1835
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > the theatre or the stage > a theatre > theatrical equipment or accessories > [noun] > scenery
scene1540
scenery?1707
scene work1728
ethereality1819
décor1897
1819 Examiner 13 June 381/2 In weather like this, our old friends, the deal-board etherialities and tin liquids, will excuse us if we prefer real fresh air.
1835 Meerut Universal Mag. 1 266 Beef, mutton, turkey, and fowl—none of the sylphlike etherealities, none of the masquerading disguises of entremets or salmis, the mayoneses or plombieres of the illustrious M. de Carème.
1839 Burton's Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 159 Solid etherialities in the form of wooden clouds were screwed to the stage.
1850 L. Hunt Autobiogr. II. xvi. 223 A good natured wizard..able to conjure his etherealities about him in the twinkling of an eye.
1860 M. Grant in W. W. Clayton Discuss. Doctr. State of Dead & Punishment of Wicked 63 My friend contends that these imaginary etherialities go to God when man dies.
1915 A. F. Leach Schools Medieval Eng. vi. 92 Passing readily from the solidities of grammar to the etherealities of logic.
1920 Living Age 21 Aug. 409/2 There will be curtains and carpets and such etherealities as china, all distressful to the soul.
1921 D. C. Scott Beauty & Life 60 The clear etherealities Are tremoured with fire; Conscious and still unconscious of the sun, The petals swoon amorously.
2011 S. Sedley Ashes & Sparks iii. xxxiii. 325 The review displayed some tetchiness towards the etherialities of academic debate.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1806