nether

See also: nether-

English

WOTD – 27 October 2010

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /nɛð.ə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /nɛð.ɚ/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /neð.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɛðə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English nether, nethere, nithere, from Old English niþera (“lower, under, lowest”, adjective), from niþer, niþor (“below, beneath, down, downwards, lower, in an inferior position”, adverb), from Proto-West Germanic *niþer, from Proto-Germanic *niþer, *niþra (“down”), from Proto-Indo-European *ni-, *nei- (“in, down”). Cognates include Dutch neder, German nieder, Luxembourgish nidder, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ned, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish nedre (“lower”), Faroese and Icelandic niður.

Adjective

nether (comparative nethermore, superlative nethermost)

1. Lower; under.

   The disappointed child’s nether lip quivered.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros‎^[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 3:

     And yet another marvel, the nether side of the canopy over the high seats was encrusted with lapis lazuli, and in that feigned dome of heaven burned the twelve signs of the zodiac, every star a diamond that shone with its own light.

2. Lying beneath, or conceived as lying beneath, the Earth’s surface.

   the nether regions

   • 1873, Mark Twain, The Gilded Age, page 187:

     When one thinks of the tremendous forces of the upper and the nether world which play for the mastery of the soul of a woman during the few years in which she passes from plastic girlhood to the ripe maturity of womanhood,

Synonyms

• (lower): bottom, lower
• (beneath the Earth's surface): subsurface, subterranean

Derived terms

• hard as the nether millstone
• Hartington Nether Quarter
• Nether Alderley
• Nether Broughton
• nether cheek
• Nether Denton
• netherdom
• Nether Exe
• Netherexe
• nether hair
• nether-hair
• Nether Heyford
• netherhood
• Netherlands
• nethermore
• nethermost
• netherness
• Nether Padley
• Nether Peover
• Nether Poppleton
• nether region
• nether-shirt
• Nether Staveley
• nether thought
• Nether Wallop
• netherward
• Nether Whitacre
• nether world
• netherworld
• Nether Wyresdale

Translations

lower

• Armenian: ստորին (hy) (storin)
• Bavarian: nida
• Bulgarian: долен (bg) (dolen)
• Central Franconian: nedde
• Czech: dolní (cs), dolejší, spodní (cs)
• Dutch: neder (nl)
• Esperanto: malalta
• Finnish: ala- (fi), alempi (fi)
• French: inférieur (fr)
• German: nieder (de)
• Hungarian: alsó (hu), al- (hu)
• Italian: inferiore (it)
• Japanese: 下の (ja) (shita no)
• Luxembourgish: nidder
• Polish: dolny (pl)
• Portuguese: inferior (pt)
• Romanian: sub (ro)
• Russian: ни́жний (ru) (nížnij)
• Spanish: inferior (es), de abajo

beneath the earth's surface

• Armenian: ստորերկյա (storerkya)
• Bavarian: nida
• Bulgarian: подземен (bg) (podzemen)
• Esperanto: subtera
• Finnish: maanalainen (fi)
• French: souterrain (fr)
• German: unterirdisch (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: χθόνιος (khthónios)

• Hungarian: föld alatti, al- (hu)
• Italian: sotterraneo (it)
• Luxembourgish: nidder
• Polish: podziemny (pl)
• Portuguese: subterrâneo (pt)
• Romanian: subteran (ro)
• Russian: подзе́мный (ru) (podzémnyj)
• Spanish: subterráneo (es)

Adverb

nether (comparative more nether, superlative most nether)

1. Down; downward.
2. Low; low down.

Etymology 2

Alteration of earlier nither, from Middle English nitheren, from Old English niþerian (“to depress, abase, bring low, humiliate, oppress, accuse, condemn”), from niþer (“below, beneath, down, downwards, lower, in an inferior position”). See above.

Alternative forms

• nither

Verb

nether (third-person singular simple present nethers, present participle nethering, simple past and past participle nethered)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.
2. (transitive, UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To constrict; straiten; confine; restrict; suppress; lay low; keep under; press in upon; vex; harass; oppress.
3. (transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To pinch or stunt with cold or hunger; check in growth; shrivel; straiten.
4. (transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To shrink or huddle, as with cold; be shivery; tremble.
5. (transitive, UK dialectal, Scotland) To depreciate; disparage; undervalue.

Derived terms

• nethering

Noun

nether (plural nethers)

1. (UK dialectal, Scotland) Oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.
2. (mining) A trouble; a fault or dislocation in a seam of coal.

Anagrams

• ethren, Herent, threne

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English nethere, from Old English niþera.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈnɛðər/

Adjective

nether

1. lower

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 59