An ephemeron is “one of the ephemeral flies,”[1] “an insect that lives only for a day in its winged form.”[2] (Obviously humans find it fascinating that they have only one day to mate before they die; what a great pick-up line, eh?) These flies are better known as May flies.
The word ephemera comes from Greek epi, over, on, attached to, and hemera, a day.
The Greeks used a similar word ephemeris to refer to a kind of diary, and it is from this that the word for tables of the predicted dates of astronomical events is taken.
Maia, after whom May is named, was the daughter of Atlas and the mother of Mercury (by Jupiter).
It may be that the Other is essentially ephemeral, meaning mainly that it has no permanent existence but instead is an artifact associated with a time loop. Because of its use in continental philosophy, the name “Other” tends to imply that the Enemy of Europa is not an actual external enemy but something identified by Europa as an enemy in order to make Europa itself function.
Transient is usually taken as a synonym for “ephemeral.” In physics (especially as applied in electrical and mechanical engineering) “transient” has a technical meaning: it refers to the way a system responds to input over the short term. If a system is stable, say a pendulum, then if it is given a thwack, it will oscillate at some amplitude in response to the thwack, but before it falls into the smooth swing associated with pendula, there are likely to be other transient motions as well. It may be interesting to note that while during much of the 20th century airplanes of all types were designed to be stable systems (in the above sense of transients naturally dying out, and thus unlikely to vibrate out of control), with the advent of computer-controlled “fly-by-wire” systems, high performance fighters (starting with the F-16 in 1978) may be slightly unstable.
If Dr. Mongfish worked in “transdimensional harmonics” (which could possibly be interpreted to mean, space-time vibrations) then he could have created the time loop out of which the ephemeral Other was created.
On the other hand, Lucrezia's association with flying insects also puns on the name “ephemeral.”
References