ether

Etymology 1

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, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light”), from αἴθω (aíthō, “to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“to burn; fire”). The English word is cognate with Italian ether, ethera (both obsolete), etere, Middle Dutch ether (modern Dutch aether (obsolete), ether), German Äther, Ether, Portuguese éter, Spanish éter.

noun

1. (uncountable, literary or poetic) The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.
   1. (by extension) The medium breathed by human beings; the air.
      On Wings the Birds through Æther glide, / And Fiſhes cut with Fins the Tide. 28 February 1746, Criticus [pseudonym], “Dialogue on Women”, in Mark Akenside], editor, The Museum: Or, The Literary and Historical Register, volume II, number XXV, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley[…], →OCLC, page 389
   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 the animosity would melt away if all religions were suddenly, somehow, to vanish into the ether. But James Carse doesn’t see them as religious conflicts at all. To him, they are battles over rival belief systems, which may or may not have religious overtones. 21 July 2008, Steve Paulson, “Religion is Poetry”, in Salon, archived from the original on 2017-08-30
      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 mother, have been whisked off into the ether forever. 2009 December, Sandra Tsing Loh, “On Being a Bad Mother: True Confessions”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 2018-07-25
      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. 7 May 2018, Meg Downey, “Marvel’s Comic Soul Stone could Explain the Jump from Infinity War’s Ending to Avengers 4: A Brief History of Crazy Multidimensional Power”, in Polygon, archived from the original on 2018-06-24
2. (uncountable, physics, historical) Often as aether and more fully as luminiferous aether: a substance once thought to fill all unoccupied space that allowed electromagnetic waves to pass through it and interact with matter, without exerting any resistance to matter or energy; its existence was disproved by the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment and the theory of relativity propounded by Albert Einstein (1879–1955).
   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 light incident on thoſe bodies is refracted towards the perpendicular; […] I ſuppose the rarer æther within bodies, and then denſer without them, not to be terminated in a mathematical ſuperficies, but to grow gradually into one another; […] 28 February 1679, Thomas Birch, quoting Isaac Newton, “The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle. [Letter from Isaac Newton to Robert Boyle.]”, in Robert Boyle, The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle. In Five Volumes. To which is Prefixed the Life of the Author, volume I, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar,[…], published 1744, →OCLC, page 70
   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 being nothing in the Univerſe, which we know if, beſides theſe two. But this Cauſe cannot be Matter: for Matter is in own Nature inert, and has not any Activity in itſelf; and conſequently cannot communicate any Power to the Æther. And therefore the Cauſe, which gives the Æther its Activity and Power, muſt be Spirit. Spirit, which intercedes the Particles of Æther, and gives them a repulſive Power, and ordains and executes the Laws, by which Æther and Bodies act mutually on one another, muſt be preſent in all Parts of Space, where there is Æther. 1747, Bryan Robinson, A Dissertation on the Æther of Sir Isaac Newton, London: Printed for Charles Hitch[…], →OCLC; quoted in “Literary Memoirs. A Dissertation on the Æther of Sir Isaac Newton, by Bryan Robinson, M.D. London, Printed for Charles Hitch, at the Red Lion in Pater-noster-Row, 1747. Containing 140 Pages in Octavo, Exclusive of a Short Preface.”, in The Museum: Or, The Literary and Historical Register, volume III, number XXVIII, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley[…], 11 April 1747, →OCLC, pages 59–60
   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 ſome body: This æther ſurrounds each atom like an atmoſphere, and preſſes equally towards the center of each. 1 November 1770, “Investigator” [pseudonym], “Of the Causes of Attraction and Repulsion”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XL, London: Printed[…], for D[avid] Henry; and sold by F[rancis] Newbery[…], →OCLC, page 497, column 1
   The ether. The earth browses upon a circular path in the fields of space, and as it moves the ether is continually pouring through it and providing its vitality. 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed
3. (uncountable, colloquial) 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 our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet. 14 June 2013, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama’s Once Hip Brand is Now Tainted [online version: Obama is Like Apple, Google and Facebook: A Once Hip Brand Tainted by Prism]”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, London, archived from the original on 2018-09-26, page 18
4. (uncountable, colloquial) 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, Politics, and Literature, volume XXXV, London: Printed, by assignment from the executors of the late Mr. James Dodsley, for W. Otridge and Son; [et al.], →OCLC, page 274, column 2
5. (uncountable, organic chemistry) 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, Convulſive, Hyſteric, Hypochondriac, or Paralytic: […] 1759, M[atthew] Turner, An Account of the Extraordinary Medicinal Fluid, Called Æther, [Liverpool]: Printed by John Sadler, →OCLC, page 5
   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 in Las Vegas, New York: Popular Library, page 4
6. (countable, organic chemistry) 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 chloridized æthers is also constant and uniform: the results are always chloride of potassium, acetate of potash, and an organic salt with a base of potash, the acid of which is that which existed in the compound chloridized æther. 1838 March, “Action of Chlorine on Æthers”, in David Brewster, Richard Taylor, Richard Phillips, editors, The London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science, volume XII (3rd Series), number 74, London: Printed by R[ichard] and J[ohn] E[dward] Taylor,[…], →OCLC, page 297
   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 colourless tables. This compound is bichloruretted salicylic ether, formed from salicylic ether (C₁₈H₁₀O₆) by the substitution of 2 eq. chlorine for 2 eq. hydrogen: its composition is therefore C₁₈H₈Cl₂O₆. 1851, A[uguste André Thomas] Cahours, “[Notices of Papers Contained in the Foreign Journals.] On Anisol and Phenetol”, in Henry Watts, editor, The Quarterly Journal of the Chemical Society of London, volume III, London: Hippolyte Bailliere,[…]; Paris: J. B. Baillière,[…]; Madrid: Bailly Baillière,[…], →OCLC, page 78
   […] 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 acid for a day at 392°F. in a tube hermetically sealed; the product was mixed with a little æther, and it was digested some time with slaked lime in the water-bath, to separate the free acid from the neutral compound. 15 October 1858, M. Hanhart, “On Some New Æthers of Stearic and Margaric Acids”, in William Francis, editor, The Chemical Gazette, or, Journal of Practical Chemistry, in All Its Applications to Pharmacy, Arts and Manufactures, volume XVI, number CCCLXXXIV, London: Published by Taylor and Francis,[…], page 384
7. (uncountable) Starting fluid.

Etymology 2

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”.

verb

1. (transitive, slang) 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 John letters you'll ever read. 26 February 2014, Tom Ley, “HS Coach Gets Ethered by Girlfriend on FB, Resigns Amid Investigation”, in Deadspin, archived from the original on 2018-10-22
   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. 15 August 2015, “Pass the Remote: What is a Popular Show Everyone Loves but You Hate?”, in TV.com, archived from the original on 2018-12-20
   Best of all, [Steven] Soderbergh, a shade queen of our time!!!, slyly ethers James Cameron: […] 15 September 2015, Kirsten Yoonsoo Kim, “Steven Soderbergh Ethers James Cameron to Promote His Brandy”, in Complex, archived from the original on 2015-09-19
   On Wednesday, I found myself nodding along vigorously to the latest Kanye West Twitter screed, as this particular iteration included a call for more inclusion at the Grammys and one extremely polite ethering of Macklemore. 25 February 2016, Rohan Nadkarni, “How does Kanye West Tweet So Fast?: Some Working Theories—because these Rants are Coming at a Record Speed”, in GQ, archived from the original on 2016-02-28

Etymology 3

noun

1. (cryptocurrencies) 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