subterraneanness

Meanings

nounsubterraneanness (uncountable)

rareuncountableThe quality of being subterranean.
A subterraneanness makes the earth shake, the surfaces.
2002 summer, Hélène Cixous, “The Book as One of Its Own Characters”, in Ralph Cohen, editor, New Literary History: A Journal of Theory & Interpretation, volume 33, number 3 (The Book as Character, Composition, Criticism, and Creation), Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISSN, section 4 (The Book Denied), page 426
5 more examples
This subject has been investigated experimentally in order to obtain so far as possible a means of expressing mathematically the relative “subterraneanness” of various species of noctuid larvae.
1921, Lewis Bradford Ripley, “The External Morphology and Postembryology of Noctuid Larvae”, in Stephen Alfred Forbes, William Trelease, Henry Baldwin Ward, editors, Illinois Biological Monographs (Contribution from the Entomological Laboratories of the University of Illinois; 86), volume VIII, number 4, Urbana, Ill.: […] [U]nder the Auspices of the Graduate School by the University of Illinois, published 1924 (October 1923 issue), page 53 [295]
And the Earth itself, that “feminine symbol” par excellence, with all her subterraneanness, her apparent immutability, would she be anything more than a pedestal which permits you to stand up straight?
1981, Louky Bersianik [pseudonym; Lucile Durand], translated by Gerry Denis, Alison Hewitt, Donna Murray, and Martha O’Brien, “The Prince’s Nature”, in The Euguélionne: A Triptych Novel, Victoria, B.C.; Toronto, Ont.: Press Porcépic, →ISBN, section 1160, page 300
The play is The Lower Depths, and it’s being performed, aptly, in a basement. But apart from this subterraneanness, you may not recognize Maxim Gorky’s monument to romantic naturalism, draped as it is in buffoonery, chaos, and lurid colors.
1983 August 16, Carolyn Clay, “Gorky’s II: The next day; Kids’ night in The Lower Depths”, in Richard M. Gaines, editor, The Boston Phoenix, volume XII, number 33, Boston, Mass.: Media Communications Corporation, →ISSN, section 3 (Boston After Dark: Arts & Entertainment), page 5, column 2
The subterraneanness, both physical and mental, enfolds its value, as a geode its flash, and that is where this visitor at least is going to leave it.
2000, Edwin Morgan, “Roof of Fireflies (1999)”, in W[illiam] N. Herbert, Matthew Hollis, editors, Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry, Hexham, Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, published 2015, →ISBN, pages 190–191
Jazz clubs, and Ronnie’s in particular, are about nightness: the otherness, the subterraneanness, the Left Bankness, the all-the-things-your-parents-warned-you-against-ness.
2006, Alan Plater, Doggin’ Around, London: Northway Publications, →ISBN, page 140
Synonyms: subterraneousness