Etymologically
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underworld

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:26. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈʌndəˌwɜːld/[1]
  • US: /ˈʌndɚˌwɚld/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English under- + world.[2][3][4][5][6] Similar words are German Unterwelt, Dutch onderwereld and Danish underverden.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The abode of the dead, imagined as lying under the earth: Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1598;[5] the OED's first quotation is from John Day's Humour out of Breath (1608).[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1600.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the early 17th century the word also meant the earth itself, the world under the heavens as opposed to heaven, first in Samuel Daniel (1609), a sense now archaic and chiefly poetic.[2][3][7][5] Tennyson used it in 1847 for the Antipodes or the part of the earth beyond the horizon.[2] From the mid-19th century it meant a sphere lying below the ordinary one, and so the lowest level of society (1858 in the OED, 1890 in Barnhart);[2][3][4] the specific sense "the world of criminals and organized crime" appears in 1900, in a McClure's Magazine heading.[2][3][4] A region below the earth's surface is recorded from 1885.[2]

Timeline

  • 1598 – the place of departed souls.[5]
  • 1608 – the abode of the dead under the earth.[2][3]
  • 1609 – the earth, the world below the heavens.[2][3]
  • 1847 – the Antipodes.[2]
  • 1858 – a lower sphere; the lowest level of society.[2]
  • 1885 – a region below the earth's surface.[2]
  • 1900 – the world of organized crime.[2][3][4]
  • 1929 – attributive use, as in underworld figures.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The world of criminals and organized crime, or the people in it: a journalist with contacts in the underworld.[8][5][2]
  2. In mythology, the place of the dead beneath the earth; Hades.[8][5][2]
  3. A region below the earth's surface or deep in the ocean.[5][2]
  4. A level of society thought of as lying below ordinary life.[5][2]
  5. (archaic) The earth, as the world below the heavens.[5][2][7]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins