[f. ETHEREAL- (or -IAL) + -ITY, after analogy of equal-ity, real-ity, etc.] a. The quality or state of being ethereal or incorporeal, or of being beyond material grasp or analysis. b. concr. Something that is ethereal.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, III. ix. 137. Dismount me, and I become a mere clod of the earth…; fire, energy, etheriality have departed.
1850. L. Hunt, Autobiog., II. xvi. 223. A good natured wizard … able to conjure his etherealities about him in the twinkling of an eye.
1859. G. Wilson, Gateways Knowl. (ed. 3), 48. A certain etheriality thus belongs pre-eminently to music.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., I. 412. Among rude races, the original conception of the human soul seems to have been that of ethereality, or vaporous materiality.
c. nonce-use. As a mock form of address.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), VII. Introd. If your Etheriality can condescend to take any interest in such earthly stuff.
