ETHER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Ether

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/ˈiθər/ Listen

noun

Ether n. (Written also aether)

1.

(Physics) A medium of great elasticity and extreme tenuity, once supposed to pervade all space, the interior of solid bodies not excepted, and to be the medium of transmission of light and heat; hence often called luminiferous ether. It is no longer believed that such a medium is required for the transmission of electromagnetic waves; the modern use of the term is mostly a figurative term for empty space, or for literary effect, and not intended to imply the actual existence of a physical medium. However. modern cosmological theories based on quantum field theory do not rule out the possibility that the inherent energy of the vacuum is greater than zero, in which case the concept of an ether pervading the vacuum may have more than metaphoric meaning.

2.

Supposed matter above the air; the air itself.

3.

(Chem.)

(a)

A light, volatile, mobile, inflammable liquid, (C2H5)2O, of a characteristic aromatic odor, obtained by the distillation of alcohol with sulphuric acid, and hence called also sulphuric ether. It is a powerful solvent of fats, resins, and pyroxylin, but finds its chief use as an anaesthetic. Commonly called ethyl ether to distinguish it from other ethers, and also ethyl oxide.

(b)

Any similar compound in which an oxygen atom is bound to two different carbon atoms, each of which is part of an organic radical; as, amyl ether; valeric ether; methyl ethyl ether. The general formular for an ether is ROR´, in which R and R´ are organic radicals which may be of similar or different structure. If R and R´ are different parts of the same organic radical, the structure forms a cyclic ether.

Complex ether, Mixed ether (Chem.), an ether in which the ether oxygen is attached to two radicals having different structures; as, ethyl methyl ether, C2H5.O.CH3.

Compound ether (Chem.), an ethereal salt or a salt of some hydrocarbon as the base; an ester.

Ether engine (Mach.), a condensing engine like a steam engine, but operated by the vapor of ether instead of by steam.

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Etymology of 'Ether'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ether" Quotes from Famous Books

... a bone out of her nose, that's all. Brandon says her heart is weak. They were afraid of the ether. She's all ...

— The Hollow of Her Hand • George Barr McCutcheon

... than human ken, what the other is after. It is not the first time for them to follow two such parties travelling across the Texan prairie. Nor will it be the first for them to unite in the air as the two troops come into collision on the earth. Often have these birds, poised in the blue ether, looked down upon red carnage like that now impending. Their instincts—let us call them so, for the sake of keeping peace with the naturalists of the closet—then admonish them what is likely to ensue. For if not reason, they have at least recollection; ...

— The Lone Ranche • Captain Mayne Reid

... androgynous, he yet remains the god who brought strange gifts and orgiastic rites to men. His followers, Silenus, Bacchantes, Fauns, exhibit, in their self-abandonment to sensual joy, the operation of his genius. The deity descends to join their revels from his clear Olympian ether, but he is not troubled by the fumes of intoxication. Michelangelo has altered this conception. Bacchus, with him, is a terrestrial young man, upon the verge of toppling over into drunkenness. The value of the work is ...

— The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti • John Addington Symonds

... of spring-tide, Brought me by the frosts of winter, Quickly journey whence thou camest, On the air-path of the heavens, Perching not upon some aspen, Resting not upon the birch-tree; Fly away to copper mountains, That the copper-winds may nurse thee, Waves of ether, thy protection. "Didst those come from high Jumala, From the hems of ragged snow-clouds, Quick ascend beyond the cloud-space, Quickly journey whence thou camest, To the snow-clouds, crystal-sprinkled, To the twinkling stars ...

— The Kalevala (complete) • John Martin Crawford, trans.

... speaks of it with a certain emotion. This defiance of the seasons, forcing Nature to do her work of congelation, in the face of her sultriest noon, might well inspire a timid mind with fear lest human art were revolting against the Higher Powers, and raise the same scruples which resisted the use of ether and chloroform in certain contingencies. Whatever may be the cause, it is well known that the announcement at any private rural entertainment that there is to be ice-cream produces an immediate and profound ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various

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