Do other languages call Earth "Earth"?

[Irishman]

John W. Kennedy said:

Not entirely. It is a thoroughly wrong notion, but a sufficiently unsophisticated person might think that:

1. Earth/planet is truly a name, like “John” or “Rumplestiltskin”, which received “dirt” as an extended sense, or even resembles an independent word earth/dirt out of mere coincidence,

How about, Earth(planet) is a name derived from its meaning as earth(dirt)? Is that unsophisticated?

[John_W.Kennedy]

@Irishman

How about, Earth(planet) is a name derived from its meaning as earth(dirt)? Is that unsophisticated?

Since that is the true state of affairs, it is unsophisticated if it be arrived at by guessing and sophisticated if by examination of the evidence, e.g., OE and ME texts and the history of cognate words in other languages.

[Mark_alot]

@John_W.Kennedy

The English word “world” comes from OE “wer-ald”, literally “man-age”. (“Wer”, as in “werewolf”, is equivalent to Latin “vir”, and means “man – opposite of woman”. “Man”, in OE, is equivalent to Latin “homo”, and means “man – opposite of beast”. For unknown reasons, “wer” disappeared from English and “man” had to pick up the slack.)

“World” has two main branches of meaning – “era” and “universe”. The “era” meaning has pretty much vanished except in certain stock religious phrases (“…world without end, Amen”) and the “universe” meaning has split into many different ones, such as “planet”, “planet Earth”, “society”, “high society”, “subculture”, “all the stuff in your life that isn’t directly evil and isn’t about bodily appetites, but still distracts you from God”, “Old World” vs. “New World”, etc., etc., etc..

In other words, let’s not go there in this thread.

This is the funniest thread I have ever read. The best part is the guy that asked the great question comes back 4 years later and does nothing to clarify what he meant. :smack:

[LawMonkey]

@ivan_astikov

I want to be a Terran, not an Earthian! Can we have a vote?

It was cool before we went all politically correct and could be “Earthmen”. But who wants to be an “Earthperson”?

[shijinn]

it’s “ground ball” in Chinese.

[bienville]

@Mark_alot

This is the funniest thread I have ever read. The best part is the guy that asked the great question comes back 4 years later and does nothing to clarify what he meant. :smack:

Personally, now that it’s been an additional three years, I enjoy entertaining the notion that Dex has been checking his e-mail daily for the past three years hoping just hoping that maybe today someone has written in to volunteer to write a follow-up to the original Staff Report.

[Cayuga]

Here’s the pitch … Chen swings … and it’s a slow Earth to shortstop.

[Powers]

@LawMonkey

It was cool before we went all politically correct and could be “Earthmen”. But who wants to be an “Earthperson”?

Traditionally it was not “Earthperson” but “Earthling” – a word that today unfortunately bears irredeemable connotations of B-grade sci-fi.
Powers &8^]

[Siam_Sam]

@LawMonkey

It was cool before we went all politically correct and could be “Earthmen”. But who wants to be an “Earthperson”?

@Powers

Traditionally it was not “Earthperson” but “Earthling” – a word that today unfortunately bears irredeemable connotations of B-grade sci-fi.
Powers &8^]

Don’t forget Earth Angels.

[dotchan]

@shijinn

it’s “ground ball” in Chinese.

Gonna nitpick on ya.

In Chinese, 地 as a noun has a couple of meanings: the ground you walk on, the soil you till, the land you own, or a particular place you’re headed to.

And in this case, 球 is better translated as “sphere”.

[shijinn]

@dotchan

Gonna nitpick on ya. …

that’s the beauty of the Chinese language, it’s logical and it makes sense. the ground you walk on, the soil you till, the land you own, or a particular place you’re headed to - all wrapped up in a sphere.

character by character direct translation can be crude, funny and possibly bewildering to the non-Chinese (eg. electronic brain). the correct translation is “Earth”.

[terentii]

In Russian, the word is Zemlya/zemlya, with additional terms specifically for soil or ground (pochva, chernozem).

I much prefer Earther to Terran or Earthian, though I do have a soft spot for Earthling as well.

(Earthperson is an abomination! :mad: )

[John_W.Kennedy]

@shijinn

character by character direct translation can be crude, funny and possibly bewildering to the non-Chinese (eg. electronic brain).

Ah, you don’t remember the 50s, then.

[LawMonkey]

@terentii

In Russian, the word is Zemlya/zemlya, with additional terms specifically for soil or ground (pochva, chernozem).

I much prefer Earther to Terran or Earthian, though I do have a soft spot for Earthling as well.

(Earthperson is an abomination! :mad: )

Where in the world did I get the idea that it was мир in Russian? That being also “peace,” but not “soil”, so far as I know.

[Nava]

@Silvermink

Being someone that believed Earth to be a name, what do other countries call the other planets? What do astronomers call the planets when writing international journals?

As for the second, whatever they are called in the language in which they’re writing.

As for the first, in Romance languages planets and moons other than Earth and the Moon have sort of the same names as in English: they are named after the same mythological beings, but the names of those beings themselves change from language to language.

So for example in Spanish it’s* Mercurio, Venus, la Tierra (la Luna), Marte (Fobos* or Phobos, Deimos)… whereas in Catalan it’s Mercuri, Venus, la Terra (la Lluna), Marte (Fobos or Phobos, Deimos)… and the pronunciations of Venus and of Marte are different. I’ve included the Ph spellings because they’ve become somewhat common in recent decades, but in older texts you’re more likely to find it as Fobos.

[JKellyMap]

@qazwart

Let’s call our planet New Jersey. That will keep the evil aliens from attempting to conquer our planet and enslave us all.

Well, they’d still have to change spaceships here on their way to whatever planet they do conquer. At least they’d arrive at that planet having lost their luggage.