The Complicated Story Behind How Earth Got Its Name

While the word earth may have come from English and Germanic sources, the other words we use to describe planet Earth come primarily from Latin. For example, the Latin word terra means land, and is used as a base in English words such as terrestrial and subterranean (via Live Science). Terms like the word orbit, used to describe the path that Earth and the other planets take around the sun, also come from Latin. In Latin, orbita means course and track (via Vocabulary).

Unlike the other planets, there are no words to describe planet Earth that come from Greek or Roman mythology, according to World Atlas. This makes Earth stand out from the rest of the solar system in a unique way. Even our solar system’s dwarf planets are named after mythological beings, such as Makemake, a dwarf planet orbiting out past Neptune that is named after the Rapanui god of fertility, per NASA.

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