What is another word for aether?

Pronunciation: [ˈiːθə] (IPA)

The term "aether" has been used to describe a hypothetical element that was thought to exist in the universe. Over time, various synonyms have been used to refer to this concept. Some of these include "ether," "vril," and "quintessence." "Ether" is perhaps the most common synonym and is often used in modern science to refer to the hypothetical substance that fills the universe and is said to carry electromagnetic waves. "Vril" was a term used in the late 19th century to describe a similar concept, while "quintessence" was used in ancient Greek philosophy to describe the fifth element that made up the universe along with air, fire, water, and earth.

Synonyms for Aether:

What are the hypernyms for Aether?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

What are the hyponyms for Aether?

Hyponyms are more specific words categorized under a broader term, known as a hypernym.

Usage examples for Aether

He is indeed conscious of the inconsistency of attributing life and sense to the earth: yet not only does he speak poetically of Earth being the creative mother, aether the fructifying father of all things, but his whole conception of the creation of the world is derived from a supposed likeness between the properties of our terrestrial and celestial systems, and those of living beings.
"The Roman Poets of the Republic"
W. Y. Sellar
Then, one day as I stood by the instruments in the Tower of Observation, at the thirteenth hour there came the thrilling of beaten aether all about me, as it were that all the void was disturbed.
"The Night Land"
William Hope Hodgson
And, immediately, I sent the Master-Word into the night; and all the aether was full of movement.
"The Night Land"
William Hope Hodgson

Famous quotes with Aether

  • And New York is the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban night is like the night there... Squares after squares of flame, set up and cut into the aether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will.
    Ezra Pound
  • Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (0. 500—428 BC) postulated another element called the aether, which was in constant rotation and carried with it the celestial bodies. He also believed that there was a directing intelligence in nature that he called Nous which gives order to what otherwise would be a chaotic universe. By he meant literally "the Mind of the Cosmos"… Anaxagoras was the last of the Ionian physicists.
    John Freely
  • Motion with respect to the universal ocean of aether eludes us. We say, "Let be the velocity of a body through the aether", and form the various electromagnetic equations in which is scattered liberally. Then we insert the observed values, and try to eliminate everything which is unknown except . The solution goes on famously; but just as we have got rid of all the other unknowns, behold! disappears as well, and we are left with the indisputable but irritating conclusion —
    Arthur Eddington
  • In the Far West, the United States of America openly claimed to be custodians of the whole planet. Universally feared and envied, universally respected for their enterprise, yet for their complacency very widely despised, the Americans were rapidly changing the whole character of man’s existence. By this time every human being throughout the planet made use of American products, and there was no region where American capital did not support local labour. Moreover the American press, gramophone, radio, cinematograph and televisor ceaselessly drenched the planet with American thought. Year by year the aether reverberated with echoes of New York’s pleasures and the religious fervours of the Middle West. What wonder, then, that America, even while she was despised, irresistibly moulded the whole human race. This, perhaps, would not have mattered, had America been able to give of her very rare best. But inevitably only her worst could be propagated. Only the most vulgar traits of that potentially great people could get through into the minds of foreigners by means of these crude instruments. And so, by the floods of poison issuing from this people’s baser members, the whole world, and with it the nobler parts of America herself, were irrevocably corrupted. For the best of America was too weak to withstand the worst. Americans had indeed contributed amply to human thought. They had helped to emancipate philosophy from ancient fetters. They had served science by lavish and rigorous research. In astronomy, favoured by their costly instruments and clear atmosphere, they had done much to reveal the dispositions of the stars and galaxies. In literature, though often they behaved as barbarians, they had also conceived new modes of expression, and moods of thought not easily appreciated in Europe. They had also created a new and brilliant architecture. And their genius for organization worked upon a scale that was scarcely conceivable, let alone practicable, to other peoples. In fact their best minds faced old problems of theory and of valuation with a fresh innocence and courage, so that fogs of superstition were cleared away wherever these choice Americans were present. But these best were after all a minority in a huge wilderness of opinionated self-deceivers, in whom, surprisingly, an outworn religious dogma was championed with the intolerant optimism of youth. For this was essentially a race of bright, but arrested, adolescents. Something lacked which should have enabled them to grow up. One who looks back across the aeons to this remote people can see their fate already woven of their circumstance and their disposition, and can appreciate the grim jest that these, who seemed to themselves gifted to rejuvenate the planet, should have plunged it, inevitably, through spiritual desolation into senility and age-long night.
    Olaf Stapledon

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