netherness

English

From Middle English nethernesse, from Old English niþernes (“deepness, the bottom, lowness, a low position”), from Proto-West Germanic *niþernassī, equivalent to nether +‎ -ness. Cognate with Old High German nidarnassi, nidarnessi (“damnation”).

netherness (uncountable)

The state or quality of being nether or beneath; lowness; inferiority.
- 2003, Romana Huk, Assembling alternatives:
  Riley's sardony preserves the duplicity, the netherness, the not-me of the narcissistic identification.
Deepness; depth; abyss.
- 2007, Eric Arvin, Slight Details & Random Events:
  It was as if the vines and roots of those withered giants would imminently wrap themselves around the old fraternity and drag it into the dark netherness that secret old, places have always held.
- 2007, Eilis Flynn, The Sleeper Awakes:
  The memory of the swirling netherness sent a chill down her spine. She shook her head. “But—” The waterfire had been both more and less than she had expected.