4 ms·

I thought the correct term for anything other than Earths Moon was "natural satelite".

Freak_NL 8y ago
Not at all. The noun 'moon' can refer to any, well, moon (like Deimos or Europa). To distinguish between those and our moon, you can use the proper name 'Moon' (capitalised) or Luna if you are so inclined. The same goes for the Sun. Our sun is either proper name 'Sun', or if your prefer Luna above, Sol. Any other star with stuff orbiting around it is just another sun (noun).
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  I thought there's only one sun regarding of whether you capitalize it or not, but that moon was generic.
  - Freak_NL 8y ago
    They are both generic, but because the context of most texts we write is here on Earth, 'sun' and 'moon' tend to be used as proper names would, but without capitalisation. That these are essentially generic nouns can show up more clearly in astronomical texts and of course in literature (science fiction).
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    “sun” is generic but rarely used as such instead of the proper noun “Sun” outside of interstellar fiction, because “star” is available and denotatively equivalent. (“sun” has a stronger connotation that the object's importance is relative to one or more planets, though.)
- lloeki 8y ago
  > Luna I have also seen Selene or Selena being used from time to time, more often as a adjective (selenic) but also as a noun every now and then.
  - leetcrew 8y ago
    same goddess. luna is the roman name and selene is the greek name.
- liftbigweights 8y ago
  > To distinguish between those and our moon, you can use the proper name 'Moon' (capitalised) or Luna if you are so inclined. No you don't. Not in english at least. The moon or sun is understood in context and with the article "the". "The moon" and "the sun" without qualifications is understood to mean earth's moon or earth's sun. General references like "a sun" or "a moon" connote non-specific and non-identifying moon or sun. If you want to specifically identify other moons or other suns, you qualify it like - the moons of jupiter or sun of X solar system. As an example, the recent SpaceX announcement. "The proposed trip—a trip around the moon for two passengers lasting about a week—is almost the same as a scheme hatched by the tourism company Space Adventures, whose president told Quartz last year it had two clients booked for the mission." https://qz.com/920993/who-are-the-space-tourists-elon-musk-will-send-around-the-moon/ https://qz.com/920993/who-are-the-space-tourists-elon-musk-w...
  - torstenvl 8y ago
    Makes me wonder if some languages (Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, ...) will adopt a new word for "soil" that isn't synonymous with "earth" once we start farming on other planets. In Romance languages, there is a separate Latin term, closely related to the word "soil," which survives in French and Portuguese. Maybe sol/solo will be borrowed back into the Romance languages where it died out.
    - xevb3k 8y ago
      In Japanese there’s 地球 which means Earth (this planet), and 土 which means soil. 地 can also mean soil, but it’s a different word from 地球 meaning the planet earth. I don’t think it’s commonly used by itself to mean soil either, but I could be wrong.
      - mediumdeviation 8y ago
        It means ground, as in the surface on which we live and build things on. 球 means ball or sphere. I wonder if that’s the reason why flat Earthers are rare in China and Japan - the very phrase ‘flat Earth’ is an oxymoron in these languages :)

Not at all. The noun 'moon' can refer to any, well, moon (like Deimos or Europa). To distinguish between those and our moon, you can use the proper name 'Moon' (capitalised) or Luna if you are so inclined. The same goes for the Sun. Our sun is either proper name 'Sun', or if your prefer Luna above, Sol. Any other star with stuff orbiting around it is just another sun (noun).

mehrdadn 8y ago
I thought there's only one sun regarding of whether you capitalize it or not, but that moon was generic.
- Freak_NL 8y ago
  They are both generic, but because the context of most texts we write is here on Earth, 'sun' and 'moon' tend to be used as proper names would, but without capitalisation. That these are essentially generic nouns can show up more clearly in astronomical texts and of course in literature (science fiction).
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  “sun” is generic but rarely used as such instead of the proper noun “Sun” outside of interstellar fiction, because “star” is available and denotatively equivalent. (“sun” has a stronger connotation that the object's importance is relative to one or more planets, though.)
lloeki 8y ago
> Luna I have also seen Selene or Selena being used from time to time, more often as a adjective (selenic) but also as a noun every now and then.
- leetcrew 8y ago
  same goddess. luna is the roman name and selene is the greek name.
liftbigweights 8y ago
> To distinguish between those and our moon, you can use the proper name 'Moon' (capitalised) or Luna if you are so inclined. No you don't. Not in english at least. The moon or sun is understood in context and with the article "the". "The moon" and "the sun" without qualifications is understood to mean earth's moon or earth's sun. General references like "a sun" or "a moon" connote non-specific and non-identifying moon or sun. If you want to specifically identify other moons or other suns, you qualify it like - the moons of jupiter or sun of X solar system. As an example, the recent SpaceX announcement. "The proposed trip—a trip around the moon for two passengers lasting about a week—is almost the same as a scheme hatched by the tourism company Space Adventures, whose president told Quartz last year it had two clients booked for the mission." https://qz.com/920993/who-are-the-space-tourists-elon-musk-will-send-around-the-moon/ https://qz.com/920993/who-are-the-space-tourists-elon-musk-w...
- torstenvl 8y ago
  Makes me wonder if some languages (Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, ...) will adopt a new word for "soil" that isn't synonymous with "earth" once we start farming on other planets. In Romance languages, there is a separate Latin term, closely related to the word "soil," which survives in French and Portuguese. Maybe sol/solo will be borrowed back into the Romance languages where it died out.
  - xevb3k 8y ago
    In Japanese there’s 地球 which means Earth (this planet), and 土 which means soil. 地 can also mean soil, but it’s a different word from 地球 meaning the planet earth. I don’t think it’s commonly used by itself to mean soil either, but I could be wrong.
    - mediumdeviation 8y ago
      It means ground, as in the surface on which we live and build things on. 球 means ball or sphere. I wonder if that’s the reason why flat Earthers are rare in China and Japan - the very phrase ‘flat Earth’ is an oxymoron in these languages :)