inferiorとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).

発音

• enPR: ĭnfîrēər
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ɪnˈfɪə.ɹi.ə/
• (General American) IPA: /ɪnˈfɪɹ.i.ɚ/
• 韻: -ɪəɹiə(ɹ)

形容詞

inferior (comparative more inferior, superlative most inferior)

1. (with to) Lower in rank, status, or quality.

   Anna had always felt inferior to her brother due to poor school grades.

   The pathological liar was morally inferior to his much nicer constituents.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Preface”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Whether they are equal or inferior to my other poems, an author is the most improper judge.

   1. Of low rank, standard or quality.

      an inferior officer

      Due to the internet issue, the system generates an inferior audio file.

      She detests visiting inferior places.

   2. (law) (of a court or tribunal) Susceptible to having its decisions overturned by a higher court.
   3. (economics) Denoting goods or services which are in greater demand during a recession than in a boom, for example second-hand clothes.
2. Located below:
   1. (anatomy) Situated further below (another part of the body), a direction that in humans corresponds to caudad.
   2. (zoology) Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body.
   3. (botany) Situated below some other organ (said of a calyx when free from the ovary, and therefore below it, or of an ovary with an adherent and therefore inferior calyx).
   4. (botany) On the side of a flower which is next to the bract.

      Synonym: anterior

   5. (typography) Printed in subscript.

      an inferior figure or letter

   6. (astronomy) Below the horizon.

      the inferior part of a meridian

3. (astronomy) Nearer to the Sun than the Earth is.

   the inferior or interior planets

   an inferior conjunction of Mercury or Venus

使用する際の注意点

Inferior and superior are generally followed by to; than is seen sometimes, but is viewed as wrong because than requires a grammatical comparative, not a notional one.

同意語

• See also Thesaurus:bad

反意語

• superior

等位語

派生語

関連する語

• Armenia Inferior
• limit inferior

名詞

inferior (plural inferiors)

1. A person of lower rank, stature, or ability to another.

   Antonym: superior

   As you are my inferior, I can tell you to do anything I want.

2. (printing) An inferior letter, figure, or symbol.

参照

• “inferior”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “inferior”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “inferior”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “inferior”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

アナグラム

• fire iron, fireiron

形容詞

īnferior (comparative, neuter īnferius); third declension

1. comparative degree of īnferus; lower in situation or place

   Antonym: superior

   1. subsequent, later, latter in time or succession
   2. inferior or lower in quality, rank, or number

      Synonym: subterior

      • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 4.861–862:

        et quotiēns steterīs domitō sublīmis in orbe,
        omnia sint numerīs īnferiōra tuīs.

        And whenever you will stand exalted for having conquered the world,
        may everything be lower than your shoulders!
        (The poet foretells the eventual dominion of the Roman Empire now that Romulus has founded the city of Rome.)

Inflection

Third-declension comparative adjective.

関連する語

• īnfimus (superlative)

派生した語

参照

• “inferior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “inferior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “inferior”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • later writers: scriptores aetate posteriores or inferiores
    
  • to gain a weak case by clever pleading: causam inferiorem dicendo reddere superiorem (λόγον κρείττω ποιειν) (Brut. 8. 30)
    
  • to be defeated in fight, lose the battle: proelio vinci, superari, inferiorem, victum discedere
    
  • to come off victorious: superiorem (opp. inferiorem), victorem (proelio, pugna) discedere