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Earth

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earth¹

  • /ɜːθ/ UK
  • /ɝθ/ Canada, US
  • /ɵːθ/ New Zealand
  • /ɜθ/
  • /ɝθ/
  • /ɜːf/
  • /ɛrθ/ Early Modern
  • /ɛːrθ/ Early Modern

Sounds like erf (th-fronting), oeuf (non-rhotic, th-fronting) · Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)f, -ɜː(ɹ)θ

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁er-der.

Proto-Germanic *erþō

Proto-West Germanic *erþu

Old English eorþe

Middle English erthe

English earth

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁érteh₂ (“earth”).

Cognates

Cognate with Scots erd, yerd, yird, yirth (“earth, loam, mould, soil; ground”), Yola eard, eart, eord, eorth, erth (“earth”), North Frisian eerd, eerde, iarde, Iart, iir, jard, örd, Öört (“earth; world”), Saterland Frisian Idde, Äid, Äide (“earth; soil; ground”), West Frisian ierde (“earth; soil; ground”), Alemannic German Ëërde (“earth”), Bavarian Erd, Erdn (“world; soil; ground”), Central Franconian Ääd (“earth”), Cimbrian èerda (“earth”), Dutch aard, aarde (“earth”), German Erde (“earth; soil; ground; world”), German Low German Eer (“earth”), Limburgish eerd (“earth”), Luxembourgish Äerd (“earth; soil”), Vilamovian Ād (“earth”), Yiddish ערד (erd, “earth; soil”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish jord (“earth”), Faroese jørð (“earth”), Icelandic jörð (“earth”), Norn yurn (“the earth”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐌰 (airþa, “earth”); also Latin ōra (“border, edge, rim”), Breton erv (“ridge between furrows”), Welsh erw (“acre”), Ancient Greek ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground”), Lithuanian erdvė (“expanse, space”), Albanian varr, vorr (“grave”), Tocharian B āre (“dust, loose earth”), Sanskrit उर्वरा (urvarā, “fertile soil, field yielding crops”), Hittite 𒅕𒄩𒀸 (er-ḫa-aš /⁠erḫaš⁠/, “border, boundary, line”).

Probably unrelated, but of unknown etymology, is Old Armenian երկիր (erkir, “earth”). Likewise, the phonologically similar Proto-Semitic *ʔarṣ́- – whence Arabic أَرْض (ʔarḍ), Hebrew אֶרֶץ (ʾereṣ) – is probably unrelated.

proper noun airth · erd · yearth

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Earth (“the third planet of the Solar System, upon which humans live”).Earth The astronauts saw the earth from the porthole.

noun earths · airth · erd · yearth

  1. uncountable Soil. This is good earth for growing potatoes.
  2. uncountable Any general rock-based material. She sighed when the plane's wheels finally touched earth.
  3. countable, uncountable The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea). Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.
  4. UK, countable, uncountable A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
  5. countable, uncountable The lair or den (as a hole in the ground, or a system of tunnels) of an animal, such as a badger. When a new earth is made I have always found the badger appropriate the holes of rabbits, and proceed to excavate, enlarge, and open them out.
  6. countable, uncountable A region of the planet; a land or country.
  7. countable, uncountable Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
  8. countable, uncountable The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife). "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
  9. countable, metonymically, uncountable The people on the globe. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.
  10. countable, uncountable Any planet similar to the Earth (our earth): an exoplanet viewed as another earth, or a potential one. New space telescopes may accelerate the search for other earths that may be out there.
  11. archaic, countable, uncountable The human body.
  12. countable, uncountable The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
  13. countable, obsolete, uncountable Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water. The term Earths was formerly, and is still, but in a modified sense, applied to several substances which compose all the various rocks, stones, gems, mountains, and soils covering the face of the globe. They are tasteless, inodorous, dry, uninflamable, sparingly soluble, difficult of fusion, and of

verb earths · earthing · earthed · airth · erd

  1. UK, transitive To connect electrically to the earth. That noise is because the amplifier is not properly earthed.
  2. transitive To bury. The Miſer earths his Treaſure; and the Thief, / Watching the Mole, half-beggars him ere Morn.
  3. transitive To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den. […]the Fox is earth’d,[…]
  4. intransitive To burrow. foxes earth'd

Earth²

  • /ɜːθ/ UK
  • /ɝθ/ US

Rhymes with -ɜː(ɹ)θ

Where it comes from

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-Germanic *erþō, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”). More at earth.

proper noun Earths · earth

  1. uncountable, usually The third planet of the Solar System; the world upon which humans live. It's my theory that we'll keep being reborn on as many Earths as it takes until every person gets it exactly right from the moment they are born until the moment they die.
  2. uncountable, usually The personification of the Earth or earth, (chiefly) as a fertile woman or (religion) goddess.

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