Etymology

netherness

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Today it means: The state or quality of being nether or beneath; lowness; inferiority. Full definition →

Middle English nethernesse ← Old English niþernes ← Proto-West Germanic *niþernassī
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*niþernassī
  2. Old English · inherited fromniþernes“deepness, the bottom, lowness, a low position”
  3. Middle English · inherited fromnethernesse
  4. English todaynetherness

From Middle English nethernesse, from Old English niþernes (“deepness, the bottom, lowness, a low position”), from Proto-West Germanic *niþernassī, equivalent to nether + -ness. Cognate with Old High German nidarnassi, nidarnessi (“damnation”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.