where are we?

out of curiosity what did humans call earth before that was the given name? i am sure each culture and civilization had its name for our world.

where did the current name come from?

[Middle English erthe, from Old English eorthe. See er-2 in Indo-European Roots.]

\Earth\, n. [AS. eor?e; akin to OS. ertha, OFries. irthe, D. aarde, OHG. erda, G. erde, Icel. j["o]r?, Sw. & Dan. jord, Goth. a[=i]rpa, OHG. ero, Gr. ?, adv., to earth, and perh. to E. ear to plow.] 1. The globe or planet which we inhabit; the world, in distinction from the sun, moon, or stars. Also, this world as the dwelling place of mortals, in distinction from the dwelling place of spirits.

I believe the Romans called it "terra firma". Correct me if I'm wrong.

i've heard Gaia before

bob

The Region of Thud

darknation said:

bob

*pops in "Poodle Hat"*

Earth is the only planet whose English name does not derive from Greek/Roman mythology.
The name derives from Old English and Germanic.
There are, of course, hundreds of other names for the planet in other languages.
Latin = Terra
French = Terre
Italian = Terra
Maltese = Id-Dinja
Spanish = Tierra
Galacian = Terra
Catalan = Terra
Raomanian = Pamint
Portugese = Terra
Esperanto = Tero
German = Erde
Dutch = Aarde
Swedish = Jorden
Norwegian = Jorda
Danish = Jorden
Icelandic = Jörd
Finnish = Maa
Albanian = Toka
Estonian = Maa
Latvian = Zeme
Hungarian = Föld
Czech = Zeme
Slovenian = Zemlja
Croatian = Zemlja
Polish = Ziemia
Georgian = Dedamizha
Russian = Zemlja
Bulgarian = Semja
Greek = Gaea
Sanskrit = Dhara
Gujarati = Prathivi
Thai = Lok
Welsh = Ddaear
Turkish = Dünya
Uzbek = Yer
Farsi = Zamin
Arabic = Ard
Hebrew = Eretz
Cantonese = Deiqao
Mandarin = Diqiu
Korean = Jeegoo
Japanese = Chikyuu
Filipino = Daigdig
Indonesian = Bumi
Sumerian = Suen
Babylonian = Sin
Tahitian = Vuravura

fodders said:

Babylonian = Sin

Heh, that one makes me chuckle.

darknation said:

bob

That was the same name they had in Titan AE.

A culture is going to call their world the same name they use for dirt or ground.

If we run into an extraterrestrial culture and try to interperet their language literally, we're gonna run into some problems...

Hie dygel lond
Warigeath, wulf-hleothu, windige naessas,
Frecne fen-gelad, thaer fyrgen-stream
Under naessa genipu, nither gewiteth
Flod under foldan.

Urth
But seriously, tis strange that a planet that has 70% of its surface covered in water should be called Earth.

Bizzaro-world

Water

DooMBoy said:

Urth
But seriously, tis strange that a planet that has 70% of its surface covered in water should be called Earth.

We would have called it Water if we had been fish. Back in the days, human beings probably thought oceans were the end of the world... the end of... earth.

DooMBoy said:

Urth
But seriously, tis strange that a planet that has 70% of its surface covered in water should be called Earth.

Earth is a giant rock with small pools of water on the surface.

Ralphis said:

Earth is a giant rock with small pools of water on the surface.

Actually it's a giant ball of magma (about 3000 to 5000 degrees celsius in the core) with a very thin shell of rock (about 0.2% of the thickness of the whole thing). With small pools of water on the surface of that. (and a thin shell of atmosphere surrounding the whole thing).

So, Fire.

læmænt said:

So, Fire.

Liquid fire so Liqire or Fiater or Watire or wagma or mater. :D

Heh, wagma.

the earth makes me want to pee

or roast marshmallows





mmmm marshmallows...

Home?

Twiztid said:

i've heard Gaia before

Isn't that a goddess in ancient Greek stuff?

-Jk- said:

Isn't that a goddess in ancient Greek stuff?

Yes, the goddess of the earth.

Yes that's right. I remember now. :)

Arda

Erp said:

Home?

Nope, that's ET's planet.

I've only heard Terra and Gaia before.

What about names from video games? I remember FFVII never said the name of the planet, even though everything in the later part of the game was on a planetary scale. It was always just "the planet."

I can't think of any other examples...

bear in mind that until not-so-long ago the concept that we were living on a ball of dirt floating in space was not about.

Following on from Fraggle, I particularly like the term middle-earth... as in between heaven and hell / creation and afterlife. Quite a nice discription.

Middle-Earth was actualy what the Norse called the Earth, though in their language it was 'Midgard'.