ether
pronunciation
How to pronounce ether in British English:
UK [ˈi:θə(r)]
How to pronounce ether in American English:
US [ˈiθɚ]
-
- Noun:
- a colorless volatile highly inflammable liquid formerly used as an inhalation anesthetic
- the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water; was believed to be the substance composing all heavenly bodies
- any of a class of organic compounds that have two hydrocarbon groups linked by an oxygen atom
- a medium that was once supposed to fill all space and to support the propagation of electromagnetic waves
Word Origin
- ether
- ether: [17] Greek aithér denoted the ‘upper atmosphere’, and by extension the ‘substance that permeated the cosmos’, from which the stars and planets were made. It was a derivative of the verb aíthein ‘ignite, blaze, shine’, a relative of Latin aestās ‘summer’, from which English gets aestivate [17]. It passed into English via Latin aethēr, and to begin with was used in its original Greek senses. Its application to the liquid with anaesthetic properties dates from the mid 18th century, the use of its first syllable in the names of organic compounds in the bicarbon series (such as ethyl and ethane) from the mid 19th century.=> aestivate, ethyl
- ether (n.)
- late 14c., "upper regions of space," from Old French ether (12c.) and directly from Latin aether "the upper pure, bright air; sky, firmament," from Greek aither "upper air; bright, purer air; the sky" (opposed to aer "the lower air"), from aithein "to burn, shine," from PIE *aidh- "to burn" (see edifice). In ancient cosmology, the element that filled all space beyond the sphere of the moon, constituting the substance of the stars and planets. Conceived of as a purer form of fire or air, or as a fifth element. From 17c.-19c., it was the scientific word for an assumed "frame of reference" for forces in the universe, perhaps without material properties. The concept was shaken by the Michelson-Morley experiment (1887) and discarded early 20c. after the Theory of Relativity won acceptance, but before it went it gave rise to the colloquial use of ether for "the radio" (1899). The name also was bestowed c. 1730 (Frobenius; in English by 1757) on a volatile chemical compound known since 14c. for its lightness and lack of color (its anesthetic properties weren't fully established until 1842).
Example
- 1. On the other hand , there were higher risks associated with chloroform than with ether , and its administration required greater physician skill .
- 2. After watching his colleague horace wells unsuccessfully promote nitrous oxide as an anesthetic , morton concentrated on the possibility of ether .
- 3. Now they reside somewhere out there in the ether .
- 4. Do not the spirits who dwell in the ether envy man his pain ?
- 5. By the time the american civil war broke out in 1861 , both ether and chloroform had been in use for several years as methods of surgical anesthesia .