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Loading ...Does anyone know who decided to name our planet Earth? Or how it was decided?
I know that “Earth” derives from the name of the Germanic Goddess (Eartha/Hertha/?), but I don’t know *why* our planet is the only one in the solar system with a non-Greek/Roman name. Why not Terra/Tellus or Gaia/Gaea? I’m just curious if anyone knows when it became “Earth”…
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“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
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it was gaia at one stage, but i think its just Devine influence, and frankly i really wouldn’t try, cos its like who decided that english was called english? its one of the mysteries of our planet. i’m studying anthology, and i haven’t figured it out yet!
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You are correct about Terra , and Hertha, that is the true origin.
Christianuty played no role in the naming of Earth.
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Its only called “Earth” in English, a minority of the world. The origin of the English Language is a combination of the old english/germanic/norse language spoken by the everyday uneducated populace, and the Latin, Greek and French spoken by the educated classes. So, any word that the common man would use survived the attempts of the educated classes to change the language, and is still used today- Thats why we use the names of the old Norse gods for the days of the week, because they were common words used by common people, while the months are latinized-the common farmer did not use names of the months commonly, but used the names of the Season- which are English words. Common people in the middle ages did not talk about the other planets, and likely didnt even know that names of them, but they did use the word “Earth” all the time. If you look at our language, and see which are Latin, Greek and French, they always refer to things an uneducated farmer in the middle ages would not talk about-and all the Germanic and old English words are those that refer to things that the common people spoke about all the time.
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Earth is the only planet not named after someone in Greek or Roman mythology, it comes from German-influenced Old English…other names for earth, Gaia nd Terra, come from Greek and Latin respectively.
My college Astronomy Professor
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