nether

Meanings

Adjective

• Lower; under.
• Lying beneath, or conceived as lying beneath, the Earth’s surface.

Adverb

• Down; downward.
• Low; low down.

Verb

• To bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.
• To constrict; straiten; confine; restrict; suppress; lay low; keep under; press in upon; vex; harass; oppress.
• To pinch or stunt with cold or hunger; check in growth; shrivel; straiten.
• To shrink or huddle, as with cold; be shivery; tremble.
• To depreciate; disparage; undervalue.

Noun

• Oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.
• A trouble; a fault or dislocation in a seam of coal.

Related

Similar words

• bottom, lower
• subsurface, subterranean

Origin

• From Middle English nether, nethere, nithere, from Old English niþera ("lower, under, lowest"), from niþer, niþor, from Proto-West Germanic, from Proto-Germanic *niþer, *niþra, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁én, *nei-. Cognates include Dutch neder, German nieder, Luxembourgish nidder, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ned, Faroese and Icelandic niður.
• Alteration of earlier nither, from Middle English nitheren, from Old English niþerian ("to depress, abase, bring low, humiliate, oppress, accuse, condemn"), from niþer. See above.