Etherized

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causing a loss of sensation and consciousness typically for surgical interventions requires the administration of anesthetic agents
2. The act of making a patient unresponsive and devoid of sensation prior to or during medical surgery through the use of anesthetics
3. Made insensible to pain and unconscious by anesthesia involving ether

Etymology: This is an inflected form, so the story belongs to its base verb, "etherize," which combines "ether" with the suffix "-ize." The ether itself is the sweet-smelling volatile liquid used as an anesthetic, and the suffix, from Greek "-izein," turns a noun into a verb meaning to treat or make something in the manner of that noun. To etherize a patient is therefore to put them under with ether, and "etherized" describes someone who has been rendered insensible in that way. The same pattern gave English a family of medical verbs, and the French "éthériser" follows an identical route, so the coinage was a shared product of the same scientific moment rather than an English peculiarity. Ether's own name, from Greek "aithēr," originally meant the upper air or pure sky, a sense that lingers in the chemical name for a substance once thought to be as light and rarefied as the heavens.

Synonyms: anesthetized, narcotized, sedated, put to sleep, drugged