All 3 Uses of
ethereal
in
Walden
- It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life.†
Chpt 1 *
- It was the most ethereal flight I had ever witnessed.†
Chpt 17
- Shall we with pains erect a heaven of blue glass over ourselves, though when it is done we shall be sure to gaze still at the true ethereal heaven far above, as if the former were not?†
Chpt 18
Definitions:
-
(1)
(ethereal) characterized by an air-like insubstantiality
or:
so delicate and insubstantial that it barely seems of this world -- often beautiful -
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
More rarely, but seen in older writings, ethereal can mean "heavenly or celestial" -- as when Milton writes of an "ethereal messenger" in Paradise Lost. Similarly, it can mean "unworldly" or "spiritual".
In chemistry, there is a specialized meaning: "of or related to the chemical, ether"