different between ether vs quintessence

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?i???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?i??/
• Rhymes: -i???(r)

Etymology 1

From Middle English ?ther (“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 aeth?r (“highest and purest part of the atmosphere; air; heavens, sky; light of day; ethereal matter surrounding a deity”) (note also New Latin aeth?r (“chemical compound analogous to diethyl ether”)), from Ancient Greek ????? (aith?r, “purer upper air of the atmosphere; heaven, sky; theoretical medium supposed to fill unoccupied space and transmit heat and light”), from ???? (aíth?, “to burn, ignite; to blaze, shine”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?eyd?- (“to burn; fire”).

The English word is cognate with Italian ether, ethera (both obsolete), etere, Middle Dutch ether (modern Dutch aether (obsolete), ether), Middle High German ?ther (modern German aether, ether (obsolete), Äther), Portuguese éter, Spanish éter.

Noun

ether (countable and uncountable, plural ethers)

1. (uncountable, literary or poetic) The substance formerly supposed to fill the upper regions of the atmosphere above the clouds, in particular as a medium breathed by deities.
   1. (by extension) The medium breathed by human beings; the air.
   2. (by extension) The sky, the heavens; the void, nothingness.
2. (uncountable, physics, historical) Often as aether and more fully as luminiferous aether: a substance once thought to fill all unoccupied space that allowed electromagnetic waves to pass through it and interact with matter, without exerting any resistance to matter or energy; its existence was disproved by the 1887 Michelson–Morley experiment and the theory of relativity propounded by Albert Einstein (1879–1955).
3. (uncountable, colloquial) The atmosphere or space as a medium for broadcasting radio and television signals; also, a notional space through which Internet and other digital communications take place; cyberspace.
4. (uncountable, colloquial) A particular quality created by or surrounding an object, person, or place; an atmosphere, an aura.
5. (uncountable, organic chemistry) Diethyl ether (C₄H₁₀O), an organic compound with a sweet odour used in the past as an anaesthetic.
6. (countable, organic chemistry) Any of a class of organic compounds containing an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrocarbon groups.

Alternative forms

• æther, aether (Britain, dated, obsolete in chemistry)
• aethyr, ethyr (archaic)

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Korean: ??? (etereu)

Translations

Etymology 2

From “Ether” (2001), a song by the American hip hop recording artist Nas (born 1973). According to Nas, the song, a diss track aimed at fellow artist Jay-Z (born 1969), was thus named because he was once told that ghosts and spirits do not like the fumes from ether (noun, sense 5), and he viewed the song as affecting Jay-Z in a similar way. The song contains the lines “I fuck with your soul like ether” and “That ether, that shit that make your soul burn slow”.

Verb

ether (third-person singular simple present ethers, present participle ethering, simple past and past participle ethered)

1. (transitive, slang) To viciously humiliate or insult.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:abash

Translations

Etymology 3

Noun

ether (plural ether)

1. (cryptocurrencies) Alternative letter-case form of Ether

References

Further reading

• aether (classical element) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• aether (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• ether on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Ether (song) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Ehret, Reeth, rethe, theer, there, three

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ether, from Latin aeth?r, from Ancient Greek ????? (aith?r).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?e?.t?r/
• Hyphenation: ether
• Rhymes: -e?t?r
• Homophone: eter

Noun

ether m (plural ethers)

1. (broadcasting, uncountable) air, broadcasting

2. (organic chemistry) ether (organic compound containing an oxygen atom bonded to two hydrocarbon groups)
3. (historical) ether (fifth element of Aristotelian natural philosophy, supposed to be the building block of the heavens)

   Synonym: kwintessens

4. (historical, physics) ether (luminiferous aether, medium in which electromagnetic waves were supposed to occur)

Derived terms

• etherisch
• etherpiraat
• etherpiraterij

Descendants

• Afrikaans: eter
• ? Japanese: ???? (?teru)

Anagrams

• heter

Portuguese

Noun

ether m (plural etheres)

1. Obsolete spelling of éter (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

English

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Middle French, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia (“fifth essence, aether”). "Essence" in this context is a synonym for "element". In pre-atomic/Aristotlean theory, there are four known elements or essences — Earth, Air, Fire and Water — and a putative fifth element (aether), which is considered to be of exceptional superior quality to the other four basic elements.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kw?n-t?s?-?ns, kw?n-t?s?-?ns, IPA^(key): /kw?n.?t?s.?ns/, /kw?n.?t?s.?ns/

Noun

quintessence (countable and uncountable, plural quintessences)

1. A thing that is the most perfect example of its type; the most perfect embodiment of something; epitome, prototype.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:model

   • 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     As families and kindreds sometimes do; producing, after long ages of unnoted notability, some living quintescence of all the qualities they had, to flame forth as a man world-noted[.]

2. A pure substance.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:non-mixture

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. The essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:gist
4. (alchemy) The fifth alchemical element, or essence, after earth, air, fire, and water that fills the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere.

   Synonym: aether

5. (physics) A hypothetical form of dark energy postulated to explain observations of an accelerating universe.

Derived terms

• quintessential
• quintessentially

Translations

Verb

quintessence (third-person singular simple present quintessences, present participle quintessencing, simple past and past participle quintessenced)

1. (transitive) To reduce to its purest and most concentrated essence.

References

• quintessence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “quintessence”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• “quintessence” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??.t?.s??s/

Noun

quintessence f (plural quintessences)

1. quintessence (all senses)