Inferior means lower in quality or in rank. An inferior copy, inferior goods, feel inferior.
In economics an inferior good is one people buy less of as they get richer, which is a technical use with no judgement in it at all. In anatomy inferior simply means lower down. The Latin is the comparative of a word meaning below.
1adjectiveinferiorLower in quality or in rank.
“These cheap copies are inferior to the original in every way.”
inferior is a quality of rank.
Latin inferior is the comparative of inferus, below. Infernal and inferno come from the same lower place.
Latin
īnferior — lower in situation or place
English, today
inferior
Built from
Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA