inferus

From Proto-Italic *enðeros, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁n̥dʰér-o-s, from *h₁n̥dʰér. Cognate with English under, Sanskrit अधर (ádhara). *ð > f is irregular in word-internal position (**inderus would be expected; compare fundus) and is explained either as (Faliscan) dialectal influence or by assuming metanalysis as a compound with in.

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈin.fe.rus/, [ˈĩːfɛrʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈin.fe.rus/, [ˈiɱferus]

īnferus (feminine īnfera, neuter īnferum, comparative īnferior, superlative īnfimus or īmus); first/second-declension adjective

1. low
2. (in the masculine plural) the souls of the dead
3. (in the neuter plural) the netherworld, the underworld, Hell

First/second-declension adjective.

• īnferia
• īnferior
• īnfernus
• īnfrā

• → Italian: infero

• “inferus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “inferus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• inferus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) the gods of the upper, lower world: superi; inferi
    
  • (ambiguous) the world below: inferi (Orcus and Tartarus only poetical)
    
  • (ambiguous) to descend to the world below: ad inferos descendere
    
  • (ambiguous) to be in the lower world: apud inferos esse
    
  • (ambiguous) to summon some one from the dead: aliquem ab inferis or a mortuis evocare, excitare (passive ab inferis exsistere)