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Ethereal vs Eclectic - What's the difference?

ethereal | eclectic |

As adjectives the difference between ethereal and eclectic

is that ethereal is pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions while eclectic is selecting a mixture of what appears to be best of various doctrines, methods or styles.

As a noun eclectic is

someone who selects according to the eclectic method.

ethereal

English

Alternative forms

* aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
  • * 1667 : , Paradise Lost , book VII
    • Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
  • * 1862 : , Walking .
    • I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
  • Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
  • * 1733 : , An Essay on Man
    • Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
  • Delicate, light and airy.

    • Derived terms

    * ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizing

    References

    * American English forms

    eclectic

    English

    Alternative forms

    * eclectick (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Selecting a mixture of what appears to be best of various doctrines, methods or styles.
  • * 1893 , John Robson, Hinduism and its Relations to Christianity , page 211, 214
    • Chunder Sen and the Progressive Brahmists broke entirely with Hinduism...and he selected from the scriptures of all creeds what seemed best in them for instruction and for worship. It is an eclectic' religion: it seeks to select what is good from all religions, and it has become the latest evidence that no ' eclectic religion can ever influence large numbers of men.
  • Unrelated and unspecialized; heterogeneous.
  • * 1983 , Peter J. Wilson, Man, the Promising Primate: The Conditions of Human Evolution , page 140
    • All members of the Hominoidea, apes and man, show an eclectic taste in food but select, from a wide range of possibilities, only a few to provide the bulk of their diet.
  • * 2006 , W. Frederick Zimmerman, Should Barack Obama Be President? , page 153
    • Colvin said Obama has an eclectic taste in music, listening to everything from Indonesian flute music to OutKast to Motown.

    Derived terms

    * eclectically * eclecticism

    Synonyms

    * (unrelated and unspecialized) heterogeneous

    Antonyms

    * (selecting a mixture of doctrines) exclusive, homogeneous, orthodox, standard, uniform

    See also

    * cherry pick * heteroclite

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Someone who selects according to the eclectic method.