Ethereal vs Evanescent - What's the difference?
ethereal | evanescent | Related terms |
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
* 1862 : ,
Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
* 1733 : ,
Delicate, light and airy.
Vanishing, disappearing.
* 1837 , , "Footprints on the Sea-Shore" in Twice-Told Tales :
* 1911 , , Initials Only , ch. 19:
Ephemeral, momentary, fleeting.
* 1851 , , Moby Dick , ch. 46:
Barely there; almost imperceptible.
* 1888 , , "The Withered Arm":
* 1907 , , The Secret Agent , ch. 7:
* 1916 , , Twilight in Italy , ch. 1:
As adjectives the difference between ethereal and evanescent
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 evanescent is vanishing, disappearing.ethereal
English
Alternative forms
* aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)Adjective
(en adjective)- Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
Walking.
- I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
An Essay on Man
- Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
Derived terms
* ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizingReferences
* American English formsevanescent
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- The sea was each little bird's great playmate. . . . In their airy flutterings, they seemed to rest on the evanescent spray.
- . . . making the ideal of my foolish girlhood seem as unsubstantial and evanescent as a dream in the glowing noontide.
- In times of strong emotion mankind disdain all base considerations; but such times are evanescent .
- Her face too was fresh in colour, but it was of a totally different quality—soft and evanescent , like the light under a heap of rose-petals.
- While he was speaking the hands on the face of the clock behind the great man's back—a heavy, glistening affair of massive scrolls in the same dark marble as the mantelpiece, and with a ghostly, evanescent tick—had moved through the space of seven minutes.
- And I was pale, and clear, and evanescent , like the light, and they were dark, and close, and constant, like the shadow.
