Inferno, the hell of Dante, represented as included in nine circles, of which the first six, constituting the uppermost hell, are occupied by those who cannot govern themselves yet have no mind to harm any one else, of which the seventh, constituting the mid-hell, is occupied by those who cannot govern their thoughts, and of which the eighth and ninth, constituting the nether hell, are occupied by those who have wilfully done harm to other people, those in the eighth in hot blood and those in the ninth or lowest in cold blood, the former in passion and the latter without passion, far down below the freezing-point. See Ruskin's “Fors Clavigera,” more fully, and by way of authority for this.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Inferi * Inflection