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Ether   /ˈiθər/   Listen
noun
Ether  n.  (Written also aether)  
1.
(Physics) A medium of great elasticity and extreme tenuity, once supposed to pervade all space, the interior of solid bodies not excepted, and to be the medium of transmission of light and heat; hence often called luminiferous ether. It is no longer believed that such a medium is required for the transmission of electromagnetic waves; the modern use of the term is mostly a figurative term for empty space, or for literary effect, and not intended to imply the actual existence of a physical medium. However. modern cosmological theories based on quantum field theory do not rule out the possibility that the inherent energy of the vacuum is greater than zero, in which case the concept of an ether pervading the vacuum may have more than metaphoric meaning.
2.
Supposed matter above the air; the air itself.
3.
(Chem.)
(a)
A light, volatile, mobile, inflammable liquid, (C2H5)2O, of a characteristic aromatic odor, obtained by the distillation of alcohol with sulphuric acid, and hence called also sulphuric ether. It is a powerful solvent of fats, resins, and pyroxylin, but finds its chief use as an anaesthetic. Commonly called ethyl ether to distinguish it from other ethers, and also ethyl oxide.
(b)
Any similar compound in which an oxygen atom is bound to two different carbon atoms, each of which is part of an organic radical; as, amyl ether; valeric ether; methyl ethyl ether. The general formular for an ether is ROR´, in which R and R´ are organic radicals which may be of similar or different structure. If R and R´ are different parts of the same organic radical, the structure forms a cyclic ether.
Complex ether, Mixed ether (Chem.), an ether in which the ether oxygen is attached to two radicals having different structures; as, ethyl methyl ether, C2H5.O.CH3.
Compound ether (Chem.), an ethereal salt or a salt of some hydrocarbon as the base; an ester.
Ether engine (Mach.), a condensing engine like a steam engine, but operated by the vapor of ether instead of by steam.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Ether" Quotes from Famous Books



... Ja do ether fugio ventosa inverno, E da florida primavera a hora Purpurea rio: de verde herva mimosa A Terra denegrida se coroa, Behem os prados ja liquido orvalho, Com que medra[)o] as plantas, e festeja[)o] Os abertos bot[)o]es das novas rosas. Com ...
— Journal of a Voyage to Brazil - And Residence There During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823 • Maria Graham

... which the races were nearly equal in numbers or where the whites were in a slight majority, with soil of medium fertility, good methods of agriculture, and, owing to better controlled labor, the best yield. In ether words, Negroes, fertile soil, and poor crops went together; and on the other hand the whites got better crops on less fertile soil. The Black Belt has never again reached the level of production it had in 1880. But the white district kept ...
— The Sequel of Appomattox - A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States, Volume 32 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Walter Lynwood Fleming

... understands fire and ether, by Juno that gives life he means the air, by Pluto the earth, by Nestis and the spring of all mortals (as it were) seed ...
— Essays and Miscellanies - The Complete Works Volume 3 • Plutarch

... in the palingenesis disclosed she saw space wrapped in a luminous atmosphere, such as she fancied lay behind the sun. There, instead of the thrones and diadems of the elect, was an immutable realm in which there was neither death nor life, clear ether merely, charged with beatitudes. And so, when the disciples disputed among themselves, Mary dreamed of diaphanous hours and immaculate days that knew no night, and in this wise lived until from the terrace of Jerusalem's ...
— Mary Magdalen • Edgar Saltus

... of the nation, revealing itself by volcanic eruptions, like an incipient or radiant star; he could not understand how the Congress of Frankfort, cursed by him, foreshadowed the future, as though inspired by tongues of fire; and could not avail himself of all that ether whose comet-like violence, cooled down in the course of time, was to compose the new German nationality, and was to give it a greater fatherland where its inherent genial nature should glow and expand. In his shortsightedness, in his lack of progressive spirit, in his want of the prophetic ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 24, November, 1891 • Various


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