3 ms·
Ha, I personally always assumed that "earth" in this context refers to land/soil. Could anyone familiar with the Greek root let me know if that works in the ori
by falcor84 9y ago
Ha, I personally always assumed that "earth" in this context refers to land/soil. Could anyone familiar with the Greek root let me know if that works in the original?
- Someone 9y agoYes, it does. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/γῆ#Ancient_Greek https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/γῆ#Ancient_Greek: "γῆ • (gê) f (genitive γῆς); first declension 1. land, earth 2. country 3.soil"
- thaumasiotes 9y agoYou can do better than that for a source. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3Dgh%3D http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... : I. earth opp. to heaven, or land opp. to sea; κατὰ γῆν on land, by land 2. earth, as an element, opp. to air, water, fire II. a land, country; γῆν πρὸ γῆς from land to land III. the earth or ground as tilled IV. a lump of earth, in the phrase γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ αἰτεῖν, γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ διδόναι, in token of submission http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dgh%3D http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... is a much more detailed, less quotable dictionary entry. As you can see, the greek word refers equally well to the planet (sense I, "the earth, including land and sea, in contrast to heaven") and the dirt (senses 2, III, and IV), just like the english word.
- ygra 9y agoSo it only breaks down on gas giants ;-)
- adamnemecek 9y agoI'm guessing it's Earth not earth since there's areography, I.e. "Geography of Mars".
- thaumasiotes 9y agoThat's just someone being cute in a space where it's relatively convenient. You're not going to find people discussing "aphroditography" for Venus.