netherとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /nɛð.ə/
• (General American, Canada) IPA: /nɛð.ɚ/
• (General Australian) IPA: /neð.ə/
• 韻: -ɛðə(ɹ)

語源 1

From 中期英語 nether, nethere, nithere, from 古期英語 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.

形容詞

nether (comparative nethermore, superlative nethermost)

1. Lower; under.

   The disappointed child’s nether lip quivered.

   • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, 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,

同意語

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

派生語

副詞

nether (comparative more nether, superlative most nether)

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

語源 2

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

別の表記

• nither

動詞

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.

派生語

• nethering

名詞

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.

アナグラム

• ethren, Herent, threne