Other forms: ethers
Ether is a light flammable liquid once used to put patients to sleep. Ether anaesthesia, the smell of ether, an ether mask.
Its first public use in 1846 made painless surgery possible and changed medicine completely. It was dropped later because it is dangerously flammable and left patients very sick. The luminiferous ether was the imaginary medium physics abandoned in 1887.
1nounetherA light flammable liquid once used as an anaesthetic.
“Before modern anaesthetics, surgeons used ether to put patients to sleep.”
ether is a liquid.
Greek aither meant the bright upper air. The chemical was named for its lightness and quick evaporation.
Old French
aether — highest and purest part of the atmosphere; medium supposedly filling the upper regions of space
Middle French
ether
Anglo-Norman
ether
Middle English
ēther — the caelum aetherum of ancient cosmology in which the planets orbit; a shining, fluid substance described as a form of air or fire; air
Latin
aethēr
English, today
ether
Built from
From Latin aethēr. From Middle English ēther (“the caelum aetherum of ancient cosmology in which the planets orbit; a shining, fluid substance described as a form of air or fire; air”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman ether and Middle French ether, ethere, aether, from Old French aether (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; medium supposedly filling the upper regions of space”) (modern French éther), or directly from its etymon Latin aethēr (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; air; heavens, sky; light of day; ethereal matter surrounding a deity”) (note also New Latin aethēr (“chemical compound analogous to diethyl ether”)), from Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (“purer upper air of the atmosphere; heaven, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light”), from αἴθω (“to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European h₂eydʰ- (“to burn; fire”). The English word is cognate with Italian ether, ethera both obsolete, etere, Middle Dutch ether (modern Dutch aether obsolete, ether), German Äther, Ether, Portuguese éter, Spanish éter.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA