éthériser

A dated medical verb meaning to anesthetize someone using ether — a historical anesthesia method largely abandoned once safer anesthetics were developed. Appears mostly in older medical or literary texts.

• Le chirurgien du XIXe siècle éthérisait ses patients avant l'opération. — The 19th-century surgeon anesthetized his patients with ether before the operation.
• Éthériser un patient comportait des risques que l'on ignorait alors. — Anesthetizing a patient with ether carried risks that weren't understood at the time.
• Ce roman décrit une scène où l'on éthérise le blessé sur la table. — This novel describes a scene where the wounded man is put under ether on the table.

Modern medicine uses anesthésier for anesthesia in general — éthériser survives only as a historical term tied specifically to ether, not as a live medical verb.

Often confused with éthérifier.