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by nashashmi 3226 days ago
Where did the name Earth come from? https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/earth

It is a common word in many languages and it has many forms like Ard or Erd or Jord.

The other word for earth that is also very common is zameen, but that means land.

1 comments

You can usually look up etymologies on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Earth#Etymology

Earth comes "from Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe (“earth; Earth”), from Proto-Germanic erþō (“earth”), from Proto-Indo-European h₁er- (“earth”)."

Also (from the page for lowercase "earth"): "Probably unrelated, and of unknown etymology, is Old Armenian երկիր (erkir, “earth”)). Likewise, the phonologically similar Proto-Semitic *ʾarṣ́- (whence Arabic أَرْض‏ (ʾarḍ), Hebrew אֶרֶץ‏ (ʾereṣ)) is probably not related."