different between ephemeral vs smoke

English

Etymology

From New Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (eph?meros), the more common form of ????????? (eph?mérios, “of, for, or during the day, living or lasting but for a day, short-lived, temporary”), from ??? (epí, “on”) + ????? (h?méra, “day”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f?.m?.??l/, /??f?.m?.??l/
• Rhymes: -???l

Noun

ephemeral (plural ephemerals)

1. Something which lasts for a short period of time.

   Synonym: ephemeron

Derived terms

• spring ephemeral

Adjective

ephemeral (comparative more ephemeral, superlative most ephemeral)

1. Lasting for a short period of time.

   Synonyms: temporary, transitory, fleeting, evanescent, momentary, short-lived, short, volatile; see also Thesaurus:ephemeral

   Antonyms: permanent, eternal, everlasting, timeless

   • 1821-1822, Vicesimus Knox, Remarks on the tendency of certain Clauses in a Bill now pending in Parliament to degrade Grammar Schools

     Esteem, lasting esteem, the esteem of good men, like himself, will be his reward, when the gale of ephemeral popularity shall have gradually subsided.

   • 1853, James Stephen, Lecture on the right use of Books

     sentences not of ephemeral, but of eternal, efficacy
2. (biology) Existing for only one day, as with some flowers, insects, and diseases.
3. (geology, of a body of water) Usually dry, but filling with water for brief periods during and after precipitation.
   • 1986, W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Y?ichi Murakami et al. (editors), New Developments in Zeolite Science and Technology (conference proceedings), Elsevier, ?ISBN, page 80:

     The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.

Derived terms

• ephemerally

Related terms

• ephemera
• ephemeron
• ephemerality
• hemeral

Translations

Further reading

• ephemeral in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ephemeral in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• ephemeral on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• smoak (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: sm?k, IPA^(key): /sm??k/
• (US) enPR: sm?k, IPA^(key): /smo?k/
• Rhymes: -??k

Etymology 1

From Middle English smoke, from Old English smoca (“smoke”), probably a derivative of the verb (see below). Related to Dutch smook (“smoke”), Middle Low German smôk (“smoke”), dialectal German Schmauch (“smoke”).

Noun

smoke (countable and uncountable, plural smokes)

1. (uncountable) The visible vapor/vapour, gases, and fine particles given off by burning or smoldering material.
2. (colloquial, countable) A cigarette.
   • 2019, Idles, "Never Fight a Man With a Perm", Joy as an Act of Resistance.

3. (colloquial, uncountable) Anything to smoke (e.g. cigarettes, marijuana, etc.)

   Hey, you got some smoke?

4. (colloquial, countable, never plural) An instance of smoking a cigarette, cigar, etc.; the duration of this act.
   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VII:

     I lit a pipe and had a good long smoke, and went on watching.

5. (uncountable, figuratively) A fleeting illusion; something insubstantial, evanescent, unreal, transitory, or without result.
   • 1974, John le Carré, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, New York: Knopf, Chapter 6, p. 44,^[1]

     I fed her a lot of smoke about a sheep station outside Adelaide and a big property in the high street with a glass front and ‘Thomas’ in lights. She didn’t believe me.

6. (uncountable, figuratively) Something used to obscure or conceal; an obscuring condition; see also smoke and mirrors.

7. (uncountable) A light grey colour/color tinted with blue.

8. (uncountable, slang) bother; problems; hassle

9. (military, uncountable) A particulate of solid or liquid particles dispersed into the air on the battlefield to degrade enemy ground or for aerial observation. Smoke has many uses--screening smoke, signaling smoke, smoke curtain, smoke haze, and smoke deception. Thus it is an artificial aerosol.
10. (baseball, slang) A fastball.
11. (countable) A distinct column of smoke, as indicating a burning area or fire.

Synonyms

• (cigarette): cig, ciggy, cancer stick, coffin nail, fag (British, Australia)

Derived terms

Translations

See smoke/translations § Noun.

Adjective

smoke

1. Of the colour known as smoke.
2. Made of or with smoke.

Translations

Related terms

Etymology 2

From Middle English smoken, from Old English smocian (“to smoke, emit smoke; fumigate”), from Proto-West Germanic *smok?n, from Proto-Germanic *smuk?n? (“to smoke”), ablaut derivative of Proto-Germanic *smaukan? (“to smoke”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)mewg- (“to smoke”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian smookje (“to smoke”), West Frisian smoke (“to smoke”), Low German smöken (“to smoke”), German Low German smoken (“to smoke”). Related also to Old English sm?ocan (“to smoke, emit smoke; fumigate”), Bavarian schmuckelen (“to smell bad, reek”).

Verb

smoke (third-person singular simple present smokes, present participle smoking, simple past and past participle smoked)

1. (transitive) To inhale and exhale the smoke from a burning cigarette, cigar, pipe, etc.

2. (intransitive) To inhale and exhale tobacco smoke.

3. (intransitive) To give off smoke.
   • 1645, John Milton, L'Allegro

     Hard by a cottage chimney smokes.

   1. (intransitive) Of a fire in a fireplace: to emit smoke outward instead of up the chimney, owing to imperfect draught.
4. (transitive) To preserve or prepare (food) for consumption by treating with smoke.

5. (transitive) To dry or medicate by smoke.
6. (transitive, obsolete) To fill or scent with smoke; hence, to fill with incense; to perfume.

   • Smoking the temple, ful of clothes fayre, / This Emelie with herte debonaire / Hire body wesshe with water of a well […]

7. (transitive, obsolete) To make unclear or blurry.
   • 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:

     Smoke your bits of glass,
     Ye loyal Swine, or her transfiguration
     Will blind your wondering eyes.

8. (intransitive, slang, chiefly as present participle) To perform (e.g. music) energetically or skillfully.

9. (US, Canada, New Zealand, slang) To beat someone at something.

10. (transitive, US, slang) To kill, especially with a gun.
11. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To thrash; to beat.
12. (obsolete, transitive) To smell out; to hunt out; to find out; to detect.
    • Template:RQ:Addison Freeloader

      Upon that […] I began to smoke that they were a parcel of mummers.

    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

      The squire gave him a good curse at his departure; and then turning to the parson, he cried out, "I smoke it: I smoke it. Tom is certainly the father of this bastard. […]

13. (slang, obsolete, transitive) To ridicule to the face; to mock.
14. To burn; to be kindled; to rage.

    • The anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man.

15. To raise a dust or smoke by rapid motion.

    • Proud of his steeds, he smokes along the field.

16. To suffer severely; to be punished.
17. (transitive, US military slang) To punish (a person) for a minor offense by excessive physical exercise.
18. (transitive) To cover (a key blank) with soot or carbon to aid in seeing the marks made by impressioning.

Synonyms

• (to inhale and exhale smoke from a burning cigarette): have a smoke

Derived terms

Descendants

• Dutch: smoken

Translations

See also

Anagrams

• Mesko, mokes

Middle English

Alternative forms

• smok, smoc

Etymology

From Old English smoca.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sm??k(?)/

Noun

smoke (uncountable)

1. smoke

Descendants

• English: smoke
• Yola: smock

References

• “sm?ke, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.