nether region
- noun
- /ˈnɛðər ˈriːdʒən/
- Archaic
:
infierno
- The preacher spoke of the dangers of straying into the nether region, warning his congregation about the consequences of sin.
Examples
-
In folklore, the nether region is often depicted as a dark and terrifying realm inhabited by evil spirits.
-
As for our family friends, once their power returned, the board games were once again exiled to the nether regions of the living room armoire.
Blog text (8) -
If the seemingly gigantic Fornley were to casually lead his cart and cuddly down the slope and into a village, the Illesk almost certainly would consider them creatures from the nether regions and take to the forest.
Fiction book (2002) -
Many ancient texts describe the nether region as a place of torment and despair for the wicked.
Synonyms
724
4.4
A religious idea of a place after death where people who do wrong suffer forever
62
9.9
A place of punishment and suffering after death in Christian belief
51
7.2
A place where souls go after death in myths
12
8.8
A place of punishment after death for very bad people in Christian belief
11
9.9
A state of never ending suffering after death, like hell
10
8.8
A dark world below the earth where the dead live
1
9.9
A place of suffering for the dead in religious stories
A place believed to be for punishment after death or a very bad situation
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is directly built from 'nether' (lower) + 'region' (area), so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a lower part or area of the body. Although often used euphemistically to refer to genitals/buttocks, the compositional meaning is predictable and mirrors comparable expressions in other languages, making it transparent to learners who know the constituents.
Etymology
Nether region may come from old Christian language where nether means 'lower' and region means an area, so people pictured a dark place below the earth where evil lived. That's why the phrase was used to mean 'hell'.