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Thread: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

  1. #1
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    Default Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    A question came up elsewhere about which astronomer first applied the term Earth to the planet, as distinct from the material world. Etymology Online gives a rough date, but no details, which makes me a bit suspicious.

    earth Look up earth at Dictionary.com
    O.E. eorše "ground, soil, dry land," also used (along with middangeard) for "the (material) world" (as opposed to the heavens or the underworld), from P.Gmc. *ertho (cf. O.N. jörš, M.Du. eerde, O.H.G. erda, Goth. airža), from PIE base *er-. The earth considered as a planet was so called from c.1400. Earthy in the fig. sense of "coarse, unrefined" is from 1594. Earthworm first attested 1591. Earthwork is from 1633. Earthlight apparently coined 1833 by British astronomer John Herschel.
    http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=earth

    Anybody know more details about who might have first applied the existant word Earth to the planet?

  2. #2
    Elephant
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    Default Re: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    It is labeled “Terra” in Copernicus’s original On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres.
    I do not bite my thumb at you, but I bite my thumb.

  3. #3
    Stegodon
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    Default Re: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    The Greeks would have had a word for it, since they conceived of the Sun, Moon and planets circling the Earth, and that would have been long before there was an English language.

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    Default Re: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    OK. Let me rephrase the question: Do we have any clue as to who Etymology Online was refering to in that c. 1400 bit? Anything back them up?

  5. #5
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    Default Re: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    It's more likely that's when we have the first recorded proof that the word shows up. We probably have no solid way to prove who came up with it. Which describes a larger tapestry of history than most people realize.

  6. #6
    I've had better days, but I don't care! hatesfreedom's avatar
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    Default Re: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    Like we find a large amount of ancient swords in dry riverbeds, but nobody really knows why that is.

  7. #7
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: Astronomers? Naming of the planet Earth question...

    Quote Originally posted by garygnu
    It is labeled “Terra” in Copernicus’s original On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres.
    If the land bit was terra firma, what was the sea bit - terra aqua?
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