# Where did the name Earth originate from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076 "2005-12-17T18:36:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![howisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/48db29/32.png) [@howisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howisi)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/1 "2005-12-17T18:36:41Z")
Well, as all the other planets have ancient god’s names, where did our own name come from? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/2 "2005-12-17T18:44:46Z")
> [@howisi](#): > > Well, as all the other planets have ancient god’s names, where did our own name come from? Earth. It’s what you’re standing on. Get it? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/3 "2005-12-17T18:55:49Z")
> [@naita](#): > > Earth. It’s what you’re standing on. Get it? I believe this is simply the correct answer. The English word _earth_ comes from Old English _eorthe_, from Germanic \*_ertho_, from the Proto-Indo-European root \*\*er-\*, meaning ‘earth, ground.’ That’s all. I mean, this is one very fundamental fact of human existence, to always have earth under our feet. To the Greeks, the earth was a goddess named Gaia. To the Romans, a goddess named Tellus. To the ancient Germans, a goddess named Nerthus. Remember that to the ancients the earth was not a planet. It was the ground that we stand on. The womb of the Mother from which life emerges and to which it returns. Not one of those little lights in the sky, those are obviously something really different. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/4 "2005-12-17T22:18:21Z")
It comes from the Quenya word “arda”. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/5 "2005-12-17T23:26:51Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I believe this is simply the correct answer. The English word _earth_ comes from Old English _eorthe_, from Germanic \*_ertho_, from the Proto-Indo-European root \*\*er-\*, meaning ‘earth, ground.’ That’s all. I mean, this is one very fundamental fact of human existence, to always have earth under our feet. > > To the Greeks, the earth was a goddess named Gaia. To the Romans, a goddess named Tellus. To the ancient Germans, a goddess named Nerthus. > > Remember that to the ancients the earth was not a planet. It was the ground that we stand on. The womb of the Mother from which life emerges and to which it returns. Not one of those little lights in the sky, those are obviously something really different. And in the Norse pantheon she was Jord (also Scandinavian for Earth and earth), and the mother of Thor. ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/6 "2005-12-18T05:51:47Z")
Borquon VII was already taken. ---
**Author:** ![aleong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4af34b/32.png) [@aleong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aleong)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/7 "2005-12-18T17:21:03Z")
As a side question, when was it agreed by everyone to call it Earth, as opposed to Gaia, Terra, or something else? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/8 "2005-12-18T18:07:45Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > the Romans, a goddess named Tellus. I thought that a Latin name ending in “-us” was male? e.g. - “Julius” -\> male; “Julia” -\> female. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/9 "2005-12-18T18:11:24Z")
> [@aleong](#): > > As a side question, when was it agreed by everyone to call it Earth, as opposed to Gaia, Terra, or something else? Not everybody calls it Earth, only anglophones do. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/10 "2005-12-18T18:28:50Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought that a Latin name ending in “-us” was male? e.g. - “Julius” -\> male; “Julia” -\> female. There are some fourth-declension feminine nouns that end in “-us”, such as “manus” and “quercus”. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-name-earth-originate-from/336076/11 "2005-12-19T08:43:38Z")
I looked in _Cassell’s Latin Dictionary_: **tellus** -uris, f. the earth. Personif. Tellus, the Earth, as the all-nourishing goddess, Cic., Hor., Liv. The genitive form _telluris_ is cited after the headword because it is the key to identifying the declension. I did not find this declension identified in _A Student’s Latin Grammar_, but the dictionary says it’s feminine.