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Can we officially rename Uranus to Caelus? Uranus (more accurately, Ouranos) is a Greek god. Besides Earth, all the other planets are named after Roman gods, th

Can we officially rename Uranus to Caelus? Uranus (more accurately, Ouranos) is a Greek god. Besides Earth, all the other planets are named after Roman gods, thus Uranus should be named Caelus to be consistent.

jliptzin 9y ago
That's not the only reason to rename Uranus
Razengan 9y ago
I've always preferred "Terra" or "Gaia" to "Earth." It could be a preference from video games, or maybe it’s because the common usage and being a synonym for ground and dirt has made the word seem ”low-brow” and the alternatives classy, exotic or poetic, and if their popularity was reversed we would think "Earth" was a classier word, but still. “Terrans” will always sound better than “Earthlings” however. :)
- gnarbarian 9y ago
  Terra also means ground, for example: terra firma.
- Analemma_ 9y ago
  I think this is just one instance of a near-universal perception among English speakers that Greek/Latin words ("Terra") sound more sophisticated than Anglo-Saxon ones ("earth"). It's hard to hypothesize about whether this could be reversed in an alternate universe because this tendency goes back many centuries: for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite, whereas Anglo-Saxon Old English was used by commoners.
  - int_handler 9y ago
    There is a similar reason for why English swear words sound Germanic: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/06/swear-words-etymology-and-the-history-of-english/ http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/06/swear-words-etymo...
    - lvkleist 9y ago
      Such an interesting article. Churchill was known to take advantage of this in his speeches, for example in (parts of) the famous "We shall fight them on the beaches": https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97665/did-the-we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches-speech-mainly-use-words-from-old-english https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97665/did-the-we... Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. - Winston Churchill
  - dghughes 9y ago
    >for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite French was too for hundreds of years even up until now and maybe for the EU again after Brexit.
- Pmop 9y ago
  It's funny because in Brazilian portuguese, people commonly use terra to refer to dirt.
  - nashashmi 9y ago
    Some people use Earth for dirt as well, like earthwork.
- nashashmi 9y ago
  Where did the name Earth come from? https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/earth 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.
  - umanwizard 9y ago
    You can usually look up etymologies on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Earth#Etymology 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."
- umanwizard 9y ago
  "Terra" means ground/dirt in Latin just as much as "earth" does in English.
tpeo 9y ago
Why is it that it bothers you that it's a Greek name and not that there's a planet named after the sky?
- int_handler 9y ago
  It's not named after the sky. It's named after the God of the Sky, which doesn't bother me any more than other planetary bodies being named after deities of couriers, beauty, war, thunder, agriculture, ocean, the underworld, and so on. The main reasons to rename Uranus is 1) consistency and 2) the puns. Either name it Caelus to be consistent with the naming convention used for the other planets or name it Ouranos to be closer to its Greek spelling and pronunciation. I prefer (1) because the current situation is similar to having a codebase where all class names are PascalCase but there's this one class name in Upper_Snake_Case.
  - tpeo 9y ago
    It is named after the sky. Or rather, it's named after a deity which was named after the sky: οὐρανός is/was the common term for sky in Greek.
  - planteen 9y ago
    Is it really worth the waste of time it would be to debate this at the IAU and the confusion it would cause? Dwarf planets don't follow any set mythology (e.g., Makemake follows Easter Island mythology). Most people aren't experts of Greek and Roman mythology. The English language is full of inconsistencies.
  - speakeron 9y ago
    > the puns That's a reason to keep the name - it's a rich seam that never seems to run dry. Also, if we did want to change the name, we all know what the anointed successor is...
    - tpeo 9y ago
      The valley spirit never dies; It is the woman, primal mother. Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail. ~Lao Tzu
trumpownsyou420 9y ago
gonna call it your ass, ya fuggin slut
mercer 9y ago
Don't worry; it will be renamed in 2620: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/a6o404/futurama-smelloscope http://www.cc.com/video-clips/a6o404/futurama-smelloscope

jliptzin 9y ago

That's not the only reason to rename Uranus

Razengan 9y ago

I've always preferred "Terra" or "Gaia" to "Earth." It could be a preference from video games, or maybe it’s because the common usage and being a synonym for ground and dirt has made the word seem ”low-brow” and the alternatives classy, exotic or poetic, and if their popularity was reversed we would think "Earth" was a classier word, but still. “Terrans” will always sound better than “Earthlings” however. :)

gnarbarian 9y ago
Terra also means ground, for example: terra firma.
Analemma_ 9y ago
I think this is just one instance of a near-universal perception among English speakers that Greek/Latin words ("Terra") sound more sophisticated than Anglo-Saxon ones ("earth"). It's hard to hypothesize about whether this could be reversed in an alternate universe because this tendency goes back many centuries: for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite, whereas Anglo-Saxon Old English was used by commoners.
- int_handler 9y ago
  There is a similar reason for why English swear words sound Germanic: http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/06/swear-words-etymology-and-the-history-of-english/ http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/06/swear-words-etymo...
  - lvkleist 9y ago
    Such an interesting article. Churchill was known to take advantage of this in his speeches, for example in (parts of) the famous "We shall fight them on the beaches": https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97665/did-the-we-shall-fight-on-the-beaches-speech-mainly-use-words-from-old-english https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/97665/did-the-we... Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all. - Winston Churchill
- dghughes 9y ago
  >for a loooong time Latin was the language of the scholarly and political elite French was too for hundreds of years even up until now and maybe for the EU again after Brexit.
Pmop 9y ago
It's funny because in Brazilian portuguese, people commonly use terra to refer to dirt.
- nashashmi 9y ago
  Some people use Earth for dirt as well, like earthwork.
nashashmi 9y ago
Where did the name Earth come from? https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/earth 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.
- umanwizard 9y ago
  You can usually look up etymologies on Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Earth#Etymology 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."
umanwizard 9y ago
"Terra" means ground/dirt in Latin just as much as "earth" does in English.

tpeo 9y ago

Why is it that it bothers you that it's a Greek name and not that there's a planet named after the sky?

int_handler 9y ago
It's not named after the sky. It's named after the God of the Sky, which doesn't bother me any more than other planetary bodies being named after deities of couriers, beauty, war, thunder, agriculture, ocean, the underworld, and so on. The main reasons to rename Uranus is 1) consistency and 2) the puns. Either name it Caelus to be consistent with the naming convention used for the other planets or name it Ouranos to be closer to its Greek spelling and pronunciation. I prefer (1) because the current situation is similar to having a codebase where all class names are PascalCase but there's this one class name in Upper_Snake_Case.
- tpeo 9y ago
  It is named after the sky. Or rather, it's named after a deity which was named after the sky: οὐρανός is/was the common term for sky in Greek.
- planteen 9y ago
  Is it really worth the waste of time it would be to debate this at the IAU and the confusion it would cause? Dwarf planets don't follow any set mythology (e.g., Makemake follows Easter Island mythology). Most people aren't experts of Greek and Roman mythology. The English language is full of inconsistencies.
- speakeron 9y ago
  > the puns That's a reason to keep the name - it's a rich seam that never seems to run dry. Also, if we did want to change the name, we all know what the anointed successor is...
  - tpeo 9y ago
    The valley spirit never dies; It is the woman, primal mother. Her gateway is the root of heaven and earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail. ~Lao Tzu

trumpownsyou420 9y ago

gonna call it your ass, ya fuggin slut

mercer 9y ago

Don't worry; it will be renamed in 2620: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/a6o404/futurama-smelloscope http://www.cc.com/video-clips/a6o404/futurama-smelloscope