a. and sb. Also 6–9 æthereal(l. [f. L. ætheri-us or æthere-us (ad. Gr. αἰθέρι-ος) + -AL.
The uncertainty of the spelling began in Latin, the orig. ætherius from the Gr. being often written -eus after the ordinary Latin adj. ending, as in ciner-eus, lign-eus, etc.; this spelling is however generally rejected by mod. scholars. The spelling -eal is now perhaps the more common in Eng. Cf. aereal, aerial.]
1. Of the nature of, or resembling the idea of, the ether or lightest and most subtle of elements; light, airy, attenuated.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 366. In the world, wherewith we are environed [there is a continual ascending], from the elements and compound things, by the Æthereall substance to heaven.
1638. Wilkins, New World, 1. The Elementary and Æthereal … doth not belong to the present Question, but of the Sea and Land [etc.].
1857. Wood, Com. Obj. Sea-shore, 27. In the kingdom of Ocean, water is the atmosphere, and, like its more ethereal relative, is ever rolling.
2. Heavenly, celestial. Chiefly poet.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 646. Go, heavenly Guest, Ethereal Messenger.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 56/98.
| Resembling Heroes, whose Etherial Root, | |
| Is Jove himself, and Cæsar is the Fruit. |
1702. Rowe, Amb. Step-Moth., I. i. Nor could the Breath of Art kindle again Th’ Etherial Fire.
1743. J. Davidson, Æneid, VII. 192. Steeds of Etherial Breed.
c. 1820. S. Rogers, Italy, Meillerie, 75. Bright and unsullied lives the ethereal flame.
1840. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Nurse’s Story. Ethereal Spirits, gentle and good, Aye weep and lament o’er a deed of blood.
3. Of or pertaining to the material heaven, or highest region of the atmosphere.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 41. Phebus … Defundand from hys sege etheriall Glaid influent aspectis celicall.
1530. Rastell, Bk. Purgat., III. ix. Pure regyon ethereall where the sonne & ye other sterres renne.
1610. Healey, Vive’s Comm. St. Aug. Citie of God (1620), 354. Porphyry reckneth gods that are either heauenly, etherall, ayery, watry, earthly, or infernall.
1638. Wilkins, New World, xiv. (1707), 115. The extreme Coldness of the Æthereal Air.
1744. Akenside, Pleas. Imag., I. 42. There to breathe at large Ætherial air.
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 275. Mischiefs sent To blast mankind from yon ethereal tower.
b. Pertaining to the terrestrial atmosphere, in opposition to the lower regions. So occasionally L. ætherius.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 706/143. For near the Confines of Etherial Light,… Th’ unwary Lover cast his Eyes behind.
4. Spirit-like, impalpable; of unearthly delicacy and refinement of substance, character or appearance.
1647. H. More, Immort. Soul, I. II. xxiv. Ethereall corporeity, Devoid of heterogeneall organity.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. (1738), 199. The soul may be also perceptive of finer impressions and ethereal contacts.
1802. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), I. 8. It is not possible to endure the draggling and the daubing of … Dr. Rennel, after the ethereal touches of Mr. Burke.
1810. Southey, Kehama, II. i. Only Kehama’s powerful eye beheld The thin etherial spirit.
1847. Disraeli, Tancred, I. II. xv. 311. Her ethereal nature seemed to shrink from coarse reality.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxi. 299. The far and ethereal masses of the Langdale Pikes.
1873. Max Müller, Sc. Relig., 365. As men, we only know of embodied spirits, however ethereal their bodies may be conceived to be.
1879. Loftie, Ride in Egypt, 150. A faith which is so wholly ethereal that it is independent of facts.
5. Physics. Of, pertaining to, or having the nature of ‘ether.’ See ETHER 5. In early use us nearly = 1.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 206. An æthereal subtile Matter … may penetrate and pervade the minutest and inmost Cavities of the closest Bodies.
1810. Vince, Astron., xxiii. 252. Beyond the atmosphere of the comet, the ætherial air … is extremely rare.
1816. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 328. All the substances in nature … may be considered either as solid, fluid, aëriform, or ethereal.
1863. E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 159. That which propagates movement, the ethereal atoms.
1873. H. Spencer, Study Sociol., xvi. (1877), 402. Millions of such etherial waves must successively make infinitesimal additions to its motion.
1878. Tait & Stewart, Unseen Univ., iii. § 114. 126. Something analogous to ethereal friction.
6. Chem. Of or pertaining to the liquid called ‘ether’ (see ETHER 6); resembling ether or its qualities.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., II. 321. Ethereal tinctures are prepared in pharmacy.
1807. T. Thomson, Chem. (ed. 3), II. 414. A combination of two parts of sulphuric acid and one of alcohol … emits a smell perceptibly ethereal.
1818. Faraday, Exp. Res., viii. 24. Substituting a stream of æthereal vapour for the wick.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 306. To distinguish acetal from acetic ether and other etherial liquids.
1844–57. G. Bird, Urin. Deposits (ed. 5), 414. The ethereal solution of fat.
1870. Sir J. Y. Simpson, Anæsthesia, Wks. 1871, II. 23. As early as 1805, Dr. Warren of Boston employed ethereal inhalation.
7. Ethereal oil. a. = Essential or Volatile oil (see quot.).
1694. Slare, in Phil. Trans., XVIII. 210. Some [Essential Oyls] are lighter than the best rectified Spirit of Wine … which has made our Chymists call them Ætherial Oyls.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Ætherial oil, The pure liquor rising next after the spirit, in the distillation of turpentine, is called the ætherial oil of turpentine.
1799. Med. Jrnl., I. 503. The water … was previously impregnated with as great a portion of ethereal oil as it was capable of holding in solution.
1811. Hooper, Med. Dict., Etherial oil, Any highly rectified essential oil may be so named.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner. & Ferns, 69. Drops of resin and ethereal oil in increasing quantity.
1887. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 July, 7/1. Absinthe, besides alcohol, contains several ethereal oils.
b. In mod. Pharmacy (see quot.).
1860. Mayne, Exp. Lex., 803/2. Oleum Æthereum, Etherial oil: a name for a sulphate of ether used only for the preparation of the compound spirit of sulphuric ether.
B. absol. and sb.
a. absol. The ethereal principle, the spirit or essence. b. sb. An ethereal being, a spirit, an immortal.
1661. Evelyn, Fumifugium, Misc. Writ. I. (1805), 215. The Ætherial, which is a certain Aer of Plato’s denomination.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), IV. 356. There is no sex in etherials.
1854. Syd. Dobell, Balder, xxiv. 154. A spirit Unseen, nor having organs to discourse The rare ethereal of its too divine And necessary beauty.
Hence Etherealism, the state or quality of being ethereal.
1834. Mrs. Boddington, Remin. Rhine, II. ii. 31. It is always natural, though sometimes perhaps of a nature too unrefined for the etherealism of woman.
1849. Manch. Courier, 18 April, 6/4. Take this description of the etherealism of love [etc.].
In mod. Dicts.
