This week saw the celebration of Earth Day on April 22. The day has come and passed. Festivities took place, fundraisers nabbed thousands of donors, hippies had drum circles. It’s a glorious day with a relatively short history, dating to just 1970. But you know whose history is incredible old, reaching back to the beginning of civilization? The word Earth.
Land
What’s in a name? That which we call Earth by any other name would still flow with blue oceans and grow with green fields and seethe with red fire. This is, of course, all true because since the beginning of time, Earth’s had many different names. The common link between the many names for Earth between many different cultures is that it relates to their words for “ground” or “land” in general. Take a look:
- In Greek, Gaia was the goddess, but also the personification of Earth. Her name became synonymous with it, though originally meant just “land.” Her name eventually evolved into the prefix geo- that exists to this day in words like geography.
- In Latin, a similar goddess and personification of Earth was called Terra, or Terra Mater (Mother Earth). Like Gaia, Terra originally was spelled Tellus and referred to ‘land’ in general. Terra is the source of every name for “Earth” in the Romance languages: Terre (French), Terra (Portuguese, Italian), and Tierra (Spanish).
- In Norse and Germanic mythology, Joro served the same role as Gaia and Terra. Over time her name was transformed and modified through a number of steps from Joro to ‘ertho.’ This Proto-Germanic word then evolved into ‘eorthe’ in Old English and then finally ‘earth.’
Just as the Latin ‘terra’ is found in some form in every Romance language, ‘ertho’ is found in every Germanic language:
- In Dutch, it’s ‘aarde.’
- In German, ‘erde.
- And in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, it’s ‘jord’ (very close to the Norse goddess Joro as mentioned before).
Adaptation
Getting from Gaia to Earth occurred like so many linguistic adaptations. The Romans transcribed (or copied to use a blunter term) the Greek pantheon, so Gaia became Terra. When the Germanic barbarians conquered Rome, they readily equated Joro with Terra. It’s happened with a massive amount of words. It’s a fascinating part of human history.
The connections between the different words runs deeper. For instance, in Greek, Roman, and Germanic religion, Earth is a goddess, hence the term “Mother Earth.” But there’s more. In all religions, there was a complementary “Sky Father,” often associated with lightning: Zeus, Jupiter, and Thor. And it’s not just European myths. In Indian Vedic religion, the “Sky Father” is named Dyaus Pita. How far is this from ‘Ju-Piter?’ This connection is what has led linguists to believe all three have come from one Proto-Indo-European culture.
So before I digress into a full mind-blowing discussion on comparative mythology and linguistics, now that you know the history of earth, just remember that Earth is unique. Not only is it the only planet to sustain life. It’s the only one whose name isn’t a Roman god.
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