different between subterranean vs nether

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin subterraneus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?bt???e?ni?n/
• Hyphenation: sub?ter?ra?ne?an

Adjective

subterranean (comparative more subterranean, superlative most subterranean)

1. below ground, under the earth, underground

Synonyms

• subterraneous, subterrene, underground, hypogean

Related terms

• terranean

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /n?ð.?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /n?ð.?/
• Rhymes: -?ð?(r)

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 [Term?], from Proto-Germanic *niþer, *niþra (“down”), from Proto-Indo-European *ni-, *nei- (“in, down”).

Adjective

nether (comparative nethermore, superlative nethermost)

1. Lower; under.

   The disappointed child’s nether lip quivered.

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

   the nether regions

   • 1873, Mark Twain, The Gilded Age, page187:

     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

Translations

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

Derived terms

• nethering

Noun

nether (plural nethers)

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

Anagrams

• ethren, threne

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English nethere, from Old English niþera.

Adjective

nether

1. lower

References

• Jacob Poole (1867) , 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, J. Russell Smith, ?ISBN