ether
Pronunciation: /ˈiː.θə/
The English word “ether” has 9 meanings listed here.
noun
- The medium breathed by human beings; the air.
- The sky, the heavens; the void, nothingness.
- 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.
- 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.
- A particular quality created by or surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere, an aura.
- Diethyl ether (C₄H₁₀O), an organic compound with a sweet odour used in the past as an anaesthetic.
- Any of a class of organic compounds containing an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrocarbon groups.
- Starting fluid.
verb
Etymology
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…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.