Sunday Word: Nethermost
nethermost [neth-er-mohst, -muhst]
adjective:
farthest down, lowest
Examples:
Zheng Ruiyu from China Academy of Art uses her collection to display the mildness and poetic vibe of Jiangnan (lower reaches of south Yangtze River). The crisscrossed lanes and alleys in Huzhou, her hometown in nethermost Zhejiang Province, and Hangzhou inspire her. (Wu Huixin, Hangzhou still China's No 1 fashionistas, Shanghai Daily, November 2018)
All we want for Christmas is... Besides Chelsea FC being cast into the nethermost abysses of the Non Leagues and Stamford Bridge getting ploughed under? (John Ashdown, Championship 2013-14: the fans' half-term report, The Guardian, December 2013)
From the topmost hair of his shocky head to the nethermost sole of his tough little feet, Bootsey Biggs was a Boy. (Lemuel Ely Quigg, Tin-Types Taken in the Streets of New York)
Looking back, I think that Mrs Strickland was the most harmless of all the lion-hunters that pursue their quarry from the rarefied heights of Hampstead to the nethermost studios of Cheyne Walk. (W Somerset Maugham, Moon and Sixpence)
The gloom which surrounded that horrible charnel pit, which seemed to go down to the very bowels of the earth, conveyed from far down the sights and sounds of the nethermost hell. (Bram Stoker, The Lair of the White Worm )
Origin:
'lowest, undermost,' early 14c, from nether + -most. Nethermore (late 14c) is now rare or obsolete. (Online Etymology Dictionary)
First recorded in 1250-1300, nethermost is from the Middle English word nethermast. (Dictionary.com)