beneath meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

beneath

adv

/bɪˈniːθ/

Etymology From Middle English benethe, from Old English bineoþan (“beneath, under, below”), equivalent to be- + neath. Cognate with Low German benedden (“beneath”), Dutch beneden (“beneath, under, down”), obsolete German benieden (“below”).

Below or underneath.

Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80:

beneath

prep

Below.

Our country sinks beneath the yoke.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
1718, Alexander Pope, epitaph to Nicholas Rowe Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies.

1 more example

Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

In a position that is lower in rank, dignity, etc.

Their despicable behaviour is beneath contempt.
He will do nothing that is beneath his high station.a. 1730, Francis Atterbury, in The Grub-Street Journal, Volume 1

Covered up or concealed by something.

Derived terms: bag beneath one's eye, bag beneath the eye, beneath contempt, beneathness, beneath the hood, beneath the surface