earth
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɜːθ/
ipa: /ɝθ/
ipa: /ɵːθ/
note: Ghana
ipa: /ɜθ/
note: Ghana
ipa: /ɝθ/
ipa: /ɛrθ/
ipa: /ɛːrθ/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ
Forms: form: earths
form: airth
form: erd
form: yearth
Etymology: From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”) (compare Scots erd, yerd, yird, yirth (“earth, loam, mould, soil; ground”), North Frisian eerd, jard, Öört (“earth”), Saterland Frisian Idde, Äid, Äide (“earth; soil; ground”), West Frisian ierde (“earth; soil; ground”), Cimbrian èerda (“earth”), Dutch aarde (“earth”), Dutch Low Saxon eerde (“earth”), German Erde (“earth; soil; ground; world”), German Low German Eer (“earth”), Luxembourgish Äerd (“earth; soil”), Vilamovian Ād (“earth”), Yiddish ערד (erd, “earth; soil”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish jord (“earth”), Faroese jørð (“earth”), Icelandic jörð (“earth”)), related to *erwô (“earth”) (compare Old High German ero, perhaps Old Norse jǫrfi), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (compare Ancient Greek *ἔρα (*éra, “earth”) in ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground, to earth”), perhaps Tocharian B yare (“gravel”).
Probably unrelated, but of unknown etymology, is Old Armenian երկիր (erkir, “earth”). Likewise, the phonologically similar Proto-Semitic *ʔarṣ́- – whence Arabic أَرْض (ʔarḍ), Hebrew אֶרֶץ (ʾereṣ) – is probably unrelated.
Senses: examples: text: This is good earth for growing potatoes.
glosses: Soil.
examples: text: She sighed when the plane's wheels finally touched earth.
glosses: Any general rock-based material.
examples: text: Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.
text: Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
ref: 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:
glosses: The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
glosses: A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
glosses: The lair or den (as a hole in the ground) of an animal such as a fox.
glosses: A region of the planet; a land or country.
glosses: Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
examples: text: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
ref: 1819 May, John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: […] [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 116:
glosses: The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
examples: text: And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 11:1, column 2:
glosses: The people on the globe.
examples: text: New space telescopes may accelerate the search for other earths that may be out there.
glosses: Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one.
glosses: The human body.
topics: alchemy
pseudoscience
qualifier: philosophy and Taoism
glosses: The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.
Derived terms: Adamic earth
Adam's earth
alkaline earth
alkaline-earth
alkaline earth metal
alkaline-earth metal
anti-earth
antiearth
black earth
Blue Earth
Blue Earth County
Blue Earth River
bog earth
bone earth
Chian earth
Cologne earth
come down to earth
cost the earth
counter-earth
dark earth
dhobi's earth
diatomaceous earth
down to earth
down-to-earth
Eartha
earth almond
earth-apple
earthapple
earth art
earthbag
earth ball
earthball
earthbank
earth bath
earthberg
earthberry
earth-berry
earthboard
earth-born
earthborn
earthbound
earth-bound
earthbred
earth-chestnut
earth closet
earthcreeper
Earth Day
earthdin
earth-diver
earth divinity
earth dog
earthdrake
earth-drake
eartheater
earthen
earthenware
earther
earthfall
earth-fast
earthfast
earthflax
earth floor
earth-floor
earthflow
earthful
earth-hog
earthhog
earthhole
earthhood
earthhouse
earthish
earthism
earthless
earthlike
earthling
earthlore
earthly
earthly paradise
earth metal
earth mother
earth-motherly
earthmover
earth-moving
earth moving
earthmoving
earthness
earth oil
earth pea
earthpea
earth-pig
earthpig
earth pig
earth pillar
earth pitch
earth plate
earth pond
earth pyramid
earthquake
earthrise
earth science
earthscraper
earthset
earthshaker
earthshaking
earth-shattering
earthshattering
earth-shine
earth-ship
earthshock
earth sign
earthslide
earth snake
earthstar
earth station
earth-stopping
earthstorm
earth-tilth
earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust
earth tone
earth tongue
earth-tongue
earth tremor
earth up
earthward
earthwards
earthware
earthwax
earth wire
earthwolf
earthwork
earthworm
earthy
edge of the earth
ends of the earth
flat-earth
flat earther
follow someone to the ends of the earth
Fountains Earth
the face of the earth
fuller's earth
gall-of-the-earth
God's green earth
go the way of all the earth
go to earth
go to the ends of the earth
green earth
green in earth
heavy earth
hell on earth
hollow earther
inearth
Japan earth
Japanese earth
Kassel earth
Lemnian earth
main earth
man-of-the-earth
middle-earth
Middle-earth
middle earth
moot earth
Mother Earth
move heaven and earth
nap-of-the-earth
near-earth
off the face of the earth
old-earth creationism
old earth creationism
on earth
on God's green earth
on the face of the earth
paradise on earth
promise the earth
rammed earth
rare earth
rare earth element
rare-earth element
rare earth magnet
rare earth metal
rare earth mineral
red earth
run to earth
salt of the earth
Samian earth
scorched earth
scorched-earth
scorched earth policy
scorched-earth policy
scum of the earth
seat earth
seatearth
star-of-the-earth
transearth
underearth
unearth
walker's earth
yellow earth
young-earth creationism
young earth creationism
Related terms: wychert
yedding
moon
sun
world
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