earth
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: alchemy
chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
pseudoscience
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₁er-der.
Proto-Germanic *erþō
Proto-West Germanic *erþu
Old English eorþe
Middle English erthe
English earth
From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁érteh₂ (“earth”).
Cognates
Cognate with Scots erd, yerd, yird, yirth (“earth, loam, mould, soil; ground”), Yola eard, eart, eord, eorth, erth (“earth”), North Frisian eerd, eerde, iarde, Iart, iir, jard, örd, Öört (“earth; world”), Saterland Frisian Idde, Äid, Äide (“earth; soil; ground”), West Frisian ierde (“earth; soil; ground”), Alemannic German Ëërde (“earth”), Bavarian Erd, Erdn (“world; soil; ground”), Central Franconian Ääd (“earth”), Cimbrian èerda (“earth”), Dutch aard, aarde (“earth”), German Erde (“earth; soil; ground; world”), German Low German Eer (“earth”), Limburgish eerd (“earth”), Luxembourgish Äerd (“earth; soil”), Vilamovian Ād (“earth”), Yiddish ערד (erd, “earth; soil”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish jord (“earth”), Faroese jørð (“earth”), Icelandic jörð (“earth”), Norn yurn (“the earth”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰 (airþa, “earth”); also Latin ōra (“border, edge, rim”), Breton erv (“ridge between furrows”), Welsh erw (“acre”), Ancient Greek ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground”), Lithuanian erdvė (“expanse, space”), Albanian varr, vorr (“grave”), Tocharian B āre (“dust, loose earth”), Sanskrit उर्वरा (urvarā, “fertile soil, field yielding crops”), Hittite 𒅕𒄩𒀸 (er-ḫa-aš /⁠erḫaš⁠/, “border, boundary, line”).
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.
Inflected forms:
form: earths
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: airth
pos: noun
tags: alternative
Scotland
form: erd
pos: noun
tags: alternative
dialectal
rare
form: yearth
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: earths
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: earthing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: earthed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: earthed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: airth
pos: verb
tags: alternative
Scotland
form: erd
pos: verb
tags: alternative
dialectal
rare
form: yearth
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Soil.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: This is good earth for growing potatoes.
gloss: Any general rock-based material.
pos: noun
tags: uncountable
examples: She sighed when the plane's wheels finally touched earth.
gloss: The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.
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.
gloss: A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
uncountable
gloss: The lair or den (as a hole in the ground) of an animal such as a fox.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A region of the planet; a land or country.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
gloss: The people on the globe.
pos: noun
tags: countable
metonymically
uncountable
examples: And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.
gloss: Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: New space telescopes may accelerate the search for other earths that may be out there.
gloss: The human body.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
uncountable
gloss: The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
uncountable
examples: The term Earths was formerly, and is still, but in a modified sense, applied to several substances which compose all the various rocks, stones, gems, mountains, and soils covering the face of the globe. They are tasteless, inodorous, dry, uninflamable, sparingly soluble, difficult of fusion, and of moderate specific gravity.
gloss: To connect electrically to the earth.
pos: verb
tags: UK
transitive
examples: That noise is because the amplifier is not properly earthed.
gloss: To bury.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The Miſer earths his Treaſure; and the Thief, / Watching the Mole, half-beggars him ere Morn.
gloss: To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: […]the Fox is earth’d,[…]
This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set.
gloss: To burrow.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: foxes earth'd
Related words: wychert
yedding
moon
sun
world
♁
🜨
Derived words: 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
earthball
earth ball
earthbank
earth bath
earth-bathing
earthberg
earthberry
earth-berry
earthboard
earthborn
earth-born
earthbound
earth-bound
earthbred
earth-chestnut
earth chestnut
earth closet
earthcreeper
Earth Day
earthdin
earth-diver
earth divinity
earth dog
earth-drake
earthdrake
eartheater
earthen
earthen mound
earthenware
earther
earthfall
earthfast
earth-fast
earthflax
earth-floor
earth floor
earthflow
earthful
earthhog
earth-hog
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
earthpig
earth pig
earth-pig
earth pillar
earth pitch
earth plate
earth pond
earth pyramid
earthquake
earthrise
earth science
earthscraper
earthset
earthshaker
earthshaking
earthshattering
earth-shattering
earth-shine
earth-ship
earthshock
earth sign
earthslide
earth smoke
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
earthwash
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
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
salt the earth
Samian earth
scorched earth policy
scorched-earth policy
scorched earth
scorched-earth
scum of the earth
seat earth
seatearth
star-of-the-earth
transearth
underearth
Walker's earth
walker's earth
yellow earth
Young Earth creationism
unearth
earthing
Translations: