subterraneanness

English

Etymology

From subterranean +‎ -ness.

Noun

subterraneanness (uncountable)

(rare) The quality of being subterranean.
Synonym: (rare) subterraneousness
- 1921, Lewis Bradford Ripley, “The External Morphology and Postembryology of Noctuid Larvae”, in Stephen Alfred Forbes, William Trelease, Henry Baldwin Ward, editors, Illinois Biological Monographs (Contribution from the Entomological Laboratories of the University of Illinois; 86), volume VIII, number 4, Urbana, Ill.: […] [U]nder the Auspices of the Graduate School by the University of Illinois, published 1924 (October 1923 issue), page 53 [295]:
  This subject has been investigated experimentally in order to obtain so far as possible a means of expressing mathematically the relative “subterraneanness” of various species of noctuid larvae.
- 1981, Louky Bersianik [pseudonym; Lucile Durand], translated by Gerry Denis, Alison Hewitt, Donna Murray, and Martha O’Brien, “The Prince’s Nature”, in The Euguélionne: A Triptych Novel, Victoria, B.C., Toronto, Ont.: Press Porcépic, →ISBN, section 1160, page 300:
  And the Earth itself, that “feminine symbol” par excellence, with all her subterraneanness, her apparent immutability, would she be anything more than a pedestal which permits you to stand up straight?
- 1983 August 16, Carolyn Clay, “Gorky’s II: The next day; Kids’ night in The Lower Depths”, in Richard M. Gaines, editor, The Boston Phoenix, volume XII, number 33, Boston, Mass.: Media Communications Corporation, →ISSN, section 3 (Boston After Dark: Arts & Entertainment), page 5, column 2:
  The play is The Lower Depths, and it’s being performed, aptly, in a basement. But apart from this subterraneanness, you may not recognize Maxim Gorky’s monument to romantic naturalism, draped as it is in buffoonery, chaos, and lurid colors.
- 2000, Edwin Morgan, “Roof of Fireflies (1999)”, in W[illiam] N. Herbert, Matthew Hollis, editors, Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry, Hexham, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, published 2015, →ISBN, pages 190–191:
  The subterraneanness, both physical and mental, enfolds its value, as a geode its flash, and that is where this visitor at least is going to leave it.
- 2002 summer, Hélène Cixous, “The Book as One of Its Own Characters”, in Ralph Cohen, editor, New Literary History: A Journal of Theory & Interpretation, volume 33, number 3 (The Book as Character, Composition, Criticism, and Creation), Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISSN, section 4 (The Book Denied), page 426:
  A subterraneanness makes the earth shake, the surfaces.
- 2006, Alan Plater, Doggin’ Around, London: Northway Publications, →ISBN, page 140:
  Jazz clubs, and Ronnie’s in particular, are about nightness: the otherness, the subterraneanness, the Left Bankness, the all-the-things-your-parents-warned-you-against-ness.