ETHEREAL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Ethereal

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/ɪθˈɪriəl/ Listen

adjective

Ethereal adj.

Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions. "Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger."

Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc. "Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man."

(Chem.) Pertaining to, derived from, or resembling, ether; as, ethereal salts.

Ethereal oil. (Chem.) See Essential oil, under Essential.

Ethereal oil of wine (Chem.), a heavy, yellow, oily liquid consisting essentially of etherin, etherol, and ethyl sulphate. It is the oily residuum left after etherification. Called also heavy oil of wine (distinguished from oil of wine, or oenanthic ether).

Ethereal salt (Chem.), a salt of some organic radical as a base; an ester.

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Etymology of 'Ethereal'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ethereal" Quotes from Famous Books

... us, indeed, that 'God is a spirit,' but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers generally, of the three first centuries, held it to be matter, light and thin indeed, an ethereal gas; but still matter. Origen says. 'Deus reapse corporalis est; sed graviorum tantum ratione corporum incorporeus.' Tertullian,' Quid enim Deus nisi corpus?' And again, 'Quis negabit Deum esse corpus? Etsi Deus spiritus, spiritus etiam corpus est, sui generis in sua effigie. ...

— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson

... of Force Crag ran down where the shoulder of the moor broke off four hundred feet below. Where the sun did not strike, the snow was a curious delicate gray, and the bottom of the dale was colored an ethereal blue. The pale-gray riband, winding in a graceful curve round the crag, marked the old green road that was sometimes used for bringing down dry fern, and Grace's face got thoughtful as she noted a row of men and horses some distance off. She ...

— The Buccaneer Farmer - Published In England Under The Title "Askew's Victory" • Harold Bindloss

... in the next chapter. She mixed herself with the lady of the sandy ringlets who had described him as a dirty boy, and the pathos of the situation lent an added anguish to his thoughts. How beautiful was the lady of the ringlets, how ethereal in aspect, how far removed, how worshipful, how adorable! How refined was her voice, how elegant her accent! She had spoken of him as a b'y, but that was a local fashion, and Paul knew no better. She was far and far away—a being of the skies, at once an ...

— Despair's Last Journey • David Christie Murray

... while I am at Hintock; and the special beauty of the situation is that our attitude and relations to each other will be purely spiritual. Socially we can never be intimate. Anything like matrimonial intentions towards her, charming as she is, would be absurd. They would spoil the ethereal character of my regard. And, indeed, I have other aims on the ...

— The Woodlanders • Thomas Hardy

... working eight hours a day; and attained to such proficiency that her collaboration in chamber music was courted by professionals. And more than twenty years later, the old lady might have been seen dauntlessly beginning the study of Hebrew. This is the more ethereal part of courage; nor was she wanting in the more material. Once when a neighbouring groom, a married man, had seduced her maid, Mrs. Jenkin mounted her horse, rode over to the stable entrance and horsewhipped the man ...

— Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin • Robert Louis Stevenson

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