- 1空靈的
Ethereal means very delicate and light, in a way that does not seem fully real. A voice, a piece of music, a face, a dress, or morning mist can feel ethereal — as if you could not quite hold it. It is a soft, slightly literary word, more at home in a story or a review than in a science lab. Under it sits an older picture: Latin aetherius and Greek aithérios, 'of the upper air,' from ether, the clear sky people once imagined above ordinary air. That heaven-sense still colours the modern one. In ordinary talk it does not mean 'made of the chemical ether,' and it has nothing to do with Ethernet. Used well, it praises a beauty that feels almost too fine. Used too often, it can sound like showing off.
From the word’s history
From Latin aetherius 'of the upper air, the sky', from Greek aitherios.
源自拉丁文 aetherius「高空的、天上的」。
組成ether (from Latin aether / Greek aithḗr, the upper sky) + -ial (makes an adjective). From Latin aetherius, Greek aithérios, 'of the upper air.'
同家族的字
- etherthe base: old word for the clear upper sky, later also a light chemical
- ethereallythe adverb formed with -ly
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
etherealadj/ɪˈθɪə.ɹɪ.əl/
- 1
Pertaining to the presupposition of an invisible air-like element permeating all of space, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere.
- Near-synonyms: aereous, celestial
- ethereal space
- 2
Pertaining to the immaterial realm, as symbolically represented by, or (in earlier epochs) conflated with, such atmospheric and extra-atmospheric concepts.
- Near-synonyms: celestial, incorporeal, insubstantial, intangible, spiritual, uncorporeal, mystical, otherworldly, transcendental; see also Thesaurus:cosmic
- Sure he preſum'd of praiſe, vvho came to ſtock / Th' etherial paſtures vvith ſo fair a flock; / Burniſh'd, and bat'ning on their food, to ſhovv / The diligence of carefull herds belovv.
- 3
Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
- Vaſt chain of being ! which from God began, / Ethereal Eſſence, Spirit, Subſtance, Man, / Beaſt, Bird, Fiſh, Inſect ! [...]
- Strange mystery of our nature, that those in whom genius developes itself in imagination, thus taking its most ethereal form, should yet be the most dependent on the opinions of others!
這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：
- ethereal wave
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。