a. (sb.) [f. Gr. ἐφήμερ-ος (see prec.) + -AL..]
A. adj.
1. a. Of diseases: Beginning and ending in a day. b. Of insects, flowers, etc.: Existing for one day only, or for a very few days.
a. 1576. Newton, trans. Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 164. The corruption of the Ayre is the cause of this grievous maladie or Ephemerall Ague.
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 945. If very short, lasting only a single day, it is appropriately called an ephemeral fever.
b. 1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1828), IV. xlix. 523. Some insects are so ephemeral that they are to be found only for a few days.
1864. Intell. Observ., No. 33. 149. The perfect Ephemeral image.
1875. Helps, Ess., Exerc. Benevolence, 36. The insects … poor ephemeral things.
1880. Gray, Struct. Bot., vi. § 5. 243. Ephemeral or Fugacious, lasting for only a day; as the petals of Poppy [etc.].
2. In more extended application: That is in existence, power, favor, popularity, etc., for a short time only; short-lived; transitory.
a. 1639. Sir H. Wotton, Reliq. Wotton. (1685), 220. An ephemeral fit of applause.
a. 1659. Bp. Morton, Episc. Justified (1670), 142. A Deambulatory, Hebdomatical (or peradventure Ephemeral) Office.
1810. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 137. His [George III’s] ministers, however weak and profligate in morals, are ephemeral.
1821. Knox, On Grammar Schools, 157. The gale of ephemeral popularity.
1825. Syd. Smith, Sp., Wks. 1859, II. 204/2. The first use which even the Spanish people made of their ephemeral liberty was to destroy the Inquisition.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. vi. 481. Empires like those of Alexander, Charles, and Cnut are in their own nature ephemeral.
b. absol.
1875. Browning, Aristoph. Apol., 127. May I, the ephemeral, ne’er scrutinize Who made the heaven and earth.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 381. When the due distinction had been drawn between the ephemeral and the lasting.
B. sb. in pl. Insects that live only for a day. Also transf. of books, persons, etc.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., II. xx. 121. Gnats, beetles, wasps, butterflies, and the whole tribe of ephemerals and insignificants, may flit in and out and between.
1831. Blackw. Mag., XXX. 965/2. Let the breezy sunshine but bring out the winged ephemerals.
1870. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 106. Assemblies of important ephemerals who met to dispute the respective claims [etc.].
1878. W. E. A. Axon, Bk. Rarities Warrington Museum, 11. Some of these books are pure ephemerals.
