An oft-encountered convention in science fiction is to call Earth not Earth, but Terra. Where and when did this practice originate?
Rome.
Terra is Latin for dirt, earth, etc.
At least we aren’t stuck with “Herschel”.
Thanks, but I knew Terra was Latin for Earth. I meant, when did it become a convention for anglophone sci-fi writers to use the term?
I suspect it originated in the 1930s. I don’t know who first called Earth “Terra” in a sf story, but I know that E.E. “Doc” Smith used the term “Tellus” for earth in his “Lensmen” series. The term is defensible.
As far as other planet names, be grateful that they wisely stuck to classical names. You might not like the name “Uranus” because you can make a smarmy little joke out of it, but it was the first new planet to be discovered since antiquity. William Herschel got the honor of naming it, since he discovered it. His first impulse was to suck up to the King of England by calling it “Siderius Georgius”. Fortunately, either he changed his mind, or wiser heads prevailed. You might not like “Uranus”, but it’s a damned sight better than “George”.
As a side note, Terra, in french, is spelled “Terre”. Pretty close.
as in pommes de terre, as epicure gourments know, a French gastronomic delight.
Potatoes, for you laymen.
And, for you literalists “Earth apples” or “ground apples.” Which is really funny, since a “road apple” is a horse turd.
On Futurama scientists have changed the name of the planet Uranus to get rid of all the dumb jokes.
It is now called Urectum. 