"cause to mix with carbonic acid or other gas," 1794 (implied in aerated), from aer/aër (used in old science for specific kinds of air, a sense later given to gas (n.1)), from Latin aer (see air (n.1)) + verbal suffix -ate (2). Meaning "expose to air" is from 1799, probably a back-formation from aeration. Related: Aerating.
also aërial, c. 1600, "pertaining to the air," from Latin aerius "airy, aerial, lofty, high" (from Greek aerios "of the air, pertaining to air," from aēr "air;" see air (n.1)). With adjectival suffix -al (1). Also in English "consisting of air," hence, figuratively, "of a light and graceful beauty; insubstantial" (c. 1600). From 1915 as "by means of aircraft." From the Latin collateral form aereus comes the alternative English spelling aereal.
"melody for a single voice," 1775, from Italian aria, literally "air" (see air (n.1)).
Historically considered, the aria marks a single moment in the course of a dramatic action. The text often consists of but a few words, many times repeated (as we find in Handel's oratorios, etc.), and the musical development is the main thing. The opposite of aria is recitative (q.v.), in which the declamation of the syllables is the main thing, colored, perhaps, by means of clever orchestration. [W.S.B. Mathews and Emil Liebling, "Dictionary of Music," 1896]
1740, "unwholesome air, air contaminated with the poison producing intermittent and remittent fever," from Italian mal'aria, from mala aria, literally "bad air," from mala "bad" (fem. of malo, from Latin malus; see mal-) + aria "air" (see air (n.1)). Probably first used by Italian physician Francisco Torti (1658-1741). By 1866 it had come to be used of the disease itself (earlier malaria fever, by 1814). The disease, now known to be mosquito-borne, once was thought to be caused by foul air in marshy districts. Replaced native ague.
1866, originally in reference to surfaces such as shell casings of beetle wings, from French aéroplane (1855), from Greek-derived aero- "air" (see air (n.1)) + stem of French planer "to soar," from Latin planus "level, flat" (from PIE root *pele- (2) "flat; to spread").
The word was later extended to the wing of a heavier-than-air flying machine. The use of the word in reference to the machine itself is first attested 1873 and probably is an independent coinage in English. Also see airplane. Ancient Greek had a word aeroplanos, but it meant "wandering in the air," from planos "wandering" (see planet).
Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to raise, lift, hold suspended."
It forms all or part of: aerate; aeration; aerial; aero-; aerobics; aerophyte; aerosol; air (n.1) "invisible gases that surround the earth;" airy; aorta; anaerobic; aria; arterial; arterio-; arteriosclerosis; arteriole; artery; aura; malaria; meteor.
It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Greek aerein "to lift, raise up;" Lithuanian svarus "heavy," sverti "to lift, weigh;" Old English swar, Old Norse svarr, Old High German swar, German schwer "heavy."
