All 3 Uses of
ethereal
in
The Lords of Discipline
- We rose up from the rocks in half darkness with stars beginning to appear in the sky like pale, ethereal jewelry.†
Chpt 3.23 *
- The distance made them little more than ethereal, insubstantial creatures, and I knew they had little chance of catching me.†
Chpt 4.38
- It was not a rumor, but more a feeling, vague and ethereal, which settled into the collective consciousness of the Corps.†
Chpt 4.42
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"