ETHER
What does "ETHER" mean?
A volatile flammable liquid once used as anesthetic; also the imagined medium of space.
Meanings
- A class of organic compound (especially diethyl ether) used historically as an anesthetic and a solvent. Surgeons in the 1800s dripped ether onto a cloth to put patients under. technical
- The invisible substance once thought to fill all space and carry light waves. Physicists searched for the luminiferous ether and found nothing. technical
- The clear upper sky or the rarefied air of the heavens. The signal vanished into the ether. figurative
Did you know?
- Physics once believed light needed a medium called the 'luminiferous ether' to travel through; the 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment failed to detect it, and that famous null result helped open the door to Einstein's relativity.
Word origin
From Greek 'aither' (the bright upper air, the sky's clear blaze), from 'aithein' (to burn, shine); into Latin 'aether', then English as the name for both heaven's air and a fiery, vanishing liquid.
Remember it
ETHER comes from Greek for 'the bright burning sky' - which is why anything lost 'into the ether' has vanished into thin, shining air.
A little poem
They went looking for the sea
that light was said to swim in.
There was no sea. There was light.
tercet
Wordplay
- Why did physicists stop inviting the ether to experiments? They kept measuring for it and it never actually showed up.
What it teaches
Sometimes the most important discovery is finding nothing where everyone swore something must be.
Quick facts
What does ETHER mean?
A volatile flammable liquid once used as anesthetic; also the imagined medium of space.
Is ETHER a valid word?
Yes — ETHER is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is ETHER?
ETHER has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does ETHER come from?
From Greek 'aither' (the bright upper air, the sky's clear blaze), from 'aithein' (to burn, shine); into Latin 'aether', then English as the name for both heaven's air and a fiery, vanishing liquid.
What can ETHER teach us?
Sometimes the most important discovery is finding nothing where everyone swore something must be.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.