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Nether vs Ethereal - What's the difference?

nether | ethereal |

As adjectives the difference between nether and ethereal

is that nether is lower; under while ethereal is pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.

As an adverb nether

is down; downward.

As a verb nether

is to bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.

As a noun nether

is oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.

nether

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) nether, nethere, nithere, from (etyl) .

Adjective

  • Lower; under.
    • The disappointed child’s nether lip quivered.
  • 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 * (sense, beneath the Earth's surface) subsurface, subterranean
    Derived terms
    * netherdom * nether region * Netherlands * nethermore * nethermost * netherness * netherty * netherward * netherworld

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • Down; downward.
  • Low; low down.

    • Etymology 2

    Alteration of earlier nither, from (etyl) nitheren, from (etyl) . See above.

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To bring or thrust down; bring or make low; lower; abase; humble.
  • To constrict; straiten; confine; restrict; suppress; lay low; keep under; press in upon; vex; harass; oppress.
  • To pinch or stunt with cold or hunger; check in growth; shrivel; straiten.
  • To shrink or huddle, as with cold; be shivery; tremble.
  • To depreciate; disparage; undervalue.
    • Derived terms
    * (l)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Oppression; stress; a withering or stunting influence.
  • (mining) A trouble; a fault or dislocation in a seam of coal.

    • Anagrams

    *

    ethereal

    English

    Alternative forms

    * aethereal * aetherial * * (obsolete) * * (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the hypothetical upper, purer air, or to the higher regions beyond the earth or beyond the atmosphere; celestial; otherworldly; as, ethereal space; ethereal regions.
  • * 1667 : , Paradise Lost , book VII
    • Go, heavenly guest, ethereal messenger.
  • * 1862 : , Walking .
    • I trust that we shall be more imaginative, that our thoughts will be clearer, fresher, and more ethereal , as our sky,...
  • Consisting of ether; hence, exceedingly light or airy; tenuous; spiritlike; characterized by extreme delicacy, as form, manner, thought, etc.
  • * 1733 : , An Essay on Man
    • Vast chain of being, which from God began, Natures ethereal , human, angel, man.
  • Delicate, light and airy.

    • Derived terms

    * ethereality * ethereally * etherealness * etherealization * etherealisation * etherealizing

    References

    * American English forms