Originating between 1250 and 1300 from Middle English, being refers to "a living creature; the state or fact of existence, consciousness, or life, or something in such a state".^[3] In philosophy, being is the object of the study of metaphysics, particularly ontology. The term being is characteristically comprehended as one's state of being, and consequently its common meaning is in the background of human experience, with aspects that involve expressions and manifestations coming from a being's innate being, or personal character.

Ethereal derives from the Latin aetherius, meaning “of or pertaining to the ether, the sky, or the air or upper air”, and from the Ancient Greek aitherios(αἰθέριος), meaning "of or pertaining to the upper air".^[4] The analogous variant Aether originates from Æthere (Greek: Αἰθήρ). Aether in Greek mythology is one of the Protogenoi, the first-born elemental gods. A deity, son of Erebus and Nyx, Aether is the personification of the upper sky, space, and heaven, and is the elemental god of the “Bright, Glowing, Upper Air”.^[5]

Hindu philosophy relates Aether to the concept of Akasha (आकाश), a Sanskrit word. The Nyaya and Vaisheshika traditions of Hindu philosophy set Akashaor ether as the fifth physical substance, which is the "substratum of the quality of sound". "It is the One, Eternal, and All Pervading physical substance, which is imperceptible".^[6]

Plato portrayed aether as that which God operated in the delineation of the universe.^[7] In the Greek Ionian philosophy of Aristotle, aether was the "fifth element", "the quintessence", had no qualities (neither hot, cold, wet, nor dry), was incapable of transforming (except change of place).^[8]

According to medieval science as Alchemy and Natural philosophy, aether, also spelled æther or Ether, is the substance that pervades the region of the Universe above the terrestrial sphere. In 19th century, etheror luminiferous aether, meaning "light bearing aether", was the term used to describe a medium for the propagation of light.^[9]

At the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century several occultists started to renew the term "etheric" for sponsoring the cosmologic principles of mysterious energies and planes of existence before at that time mostly represented by term "astral". One of the earliest eminent figures was C. W. Leadbeater who practically recaptured the concept of an etheric plane.^[10][11]

Nyx primordial goddess of the night, mother of Aether which personifies pure upper air that the gods breathe, hovers above Charon with her son Morpheus, leader of the Oneiroi, the spirits (wingeddaimones) of dreams.^[12] Painting by Luca Giordano, 1684-1686.

In English literature ethereal naturalizes affiliative definitions in quotations such as,^[4][13]

1667: Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger —English poet Milton in Paradise Lost (book VII).

1862: I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal, as our sky —American philosopher Thoreau in Walking.

Associated with the "quality of beings; consisting of ether, hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spirit-like; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought":

1733: Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal, human, angel, man —English poet Alexander Pope.^[14]

Meaning "spirit-like, impalpable; of unearthly delicacy and refinement of substance, character, or appearance":

1722: The soul may be also perceptive of finer impressions and ethereal contacts —English philosopher William Wollaston.^[15]

1810: Only Kehama's powerful eye beheld the thin ethereal spirit —English poet Robert Southey in Curse of Kehama, an epic poem.

1847: Her ethereal nature seemed to shrink from coarse reality —British Benjamin Disraeli in the novel Tancred.^[16]

1870: As men, we only know of embodied spirits, however ethereal their bodies may be conceived to be —German orientalist Max Müller.^[17]

1879: A faith which is so wholly ethereal as to be independent of facts —British W. J. Loftie.^[18