aether

Forms

aethēr m (genitive aetheris); third declension^[1] Pacuvius has aeter.^[2] It often keeps Greek case forms: accusative aethera, genitive aetheros.^[2][3] Later prose also has the accusative aetherem.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek αἰθήρ (aithḗr, “upper air, sky”).^[2][1][4] Köbler connects the Greek word with αἴθω (aíthō, “to kindle”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *h₂eydʰ- (“to burn”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ennius speaks of the liquidās aetheris ōrās, the clear shores of the upper air, and of a shout rolling through the sky to heaven.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

It is the upper regions of space, heaven or the ether, the bright substance around a god (Valerius Flaccus), and by metonymy the gods, as Virgil's heaven loaded with vows.^[2] Cicero names Aether, with Day, as the parents of Caelus.^[2] It is also the air and the sky, and the upper world and daylight as opposed to the underworld, where Virgil's dead would rather bear poverty aethere in altō.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “sky, upper air”.^[6] In Medieval and New Latin it was the ether or quintessence of alchemy.^[1] English ether (late 14th century), “upper regions of space”, comes from it, in part through Old French.^[4]

Timeline

• 204–169 BC – Ennius of the upper air and the sky.^[2][5]
• 220–130 BC – Pacuvius in the form aeter.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of the god Aether.^[2][5]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil of the gods and the upper world.^[2][5]
• late 14th century – English ether.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The upper air, heaven, the ether; the gods.^[2][1][6]
2. (personified) Aether, a god.^[2]
3. The air, the sky; the upper world, daylight (as opposed to the underworld).^[2][1]
4. (Medieval and New Latin) Ether, the quintessence.^[1]

Word family

• aetherius

Related words

• aethra
• English ether

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson