hermetic: [17] Hermetic means literally ‘of Hermes’. Not Hermes the messenger of the Greek gods, though, but an Egyptian priest of the time of Moses, who in the Middle Ages was regarded as identical with the versatile Hermes in his capacity of patron of science and invention, and who was thus named Hermes Trismegistus ‘Hermes the thrice greatest’. This shadowy figure was the supposed author of various works on alchemy and magic, and so the term hermetic came to be roughly synonymous with alchemical.
One of the inventions credited to Hermes Trismegistus was a magic seal to make containers airtight, and by the 1660s we find hermetic being used for ‘airtight’.
hermetic (adj.)
c. 1600 (implied in hermetically), "completely sealed," also (1630s) "dealing with occult science or alchemy," from Latin hermeticus, from Greek Hermes, god of science and art, among other things, identified by Neoplatonists, mystics, and alchemists with the Egyptian god Thoth as Hermes Trismegistos "Thrice-Great Hermes," who supposedly invented the process of making a glass tube airtight (a process in alchemy) using a secret seal.
双语例句
1. Their work is more cosily hermetic than ever.
他们的工作比任何时候都要更加安逸，更加不受外界干扰。
来自柯林斯例句
2. the strange, hermetic world of the theatre
神秘、与世隔绝的戏剧世界
来自《权威词典》
3. The hermetic seal on the packet means that the food lasts longer.
封袋上的密封印表明食物能保存更长的时间.
来自《简明英汉词典》
4. This would permit air to enter, breaking the hermetic seal of the jar.
这会造成漏气，破坏罐子的密封性。
来自柯林斯例句
5. Its film industry operates in its own curiously hermetic way.