LONDON – Do you know where the origin of the name Earth pinned on the planet that is where humans live today. It turns out that the naming of Earth has history long, from a number of western literacies found in Babylonian, Ancient Roman, and Anglo-Saxon cultures.
So indeed there are a number of terms to refer to Earth or Earth (English) from various developing cultures. Linguistically, the almost similar naming comes from the Anglo-Saxon language, one of the languages used by the ancestors of the people living in mainland England.
Anglo-Saxon is the modern term to refer to a cultural group that lived in modern England and Wales, shortly after the collapse of the Roman Empire, between the fifth century and the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Read also; Planet Earth Dies Faster Than We Think
In the Anglo-Saxon language Ertha is known as a word which is thought to have the meaning “land” (the land on which we stand). “Ertha in the Anglo-Saxon language means land where you walk, land where you sow crops,” said archaeologist and historian Gillian Hovell.
Hovell explains, Ertha can also be interpreted as connecting to where life arose and possibly even with buried ancestors. But sometimes the name can change its meaning depending on the culture.
Another popular modern term for “Earth” comes from the Latin, Terra which means land. It is from the word Terra that we get the modern English words Terrestrial, Subterranean, Extraterrestrial, and others. “The word Terra can also mean the land on which you stand, farm or interact,” says Hovell.
Read also; Astronomers estimate that there are billions of Earth-like planets
Hovell added, there is also the word Orbis which was used by the ancient Romans. Orbis means globe referring to the Greek science, namely Eratosthenes who measured the circumference of our planet in 240 BC.
–
