earth

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earth

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• airth (chiefly Scotland)
• erd (dialect, rare)
• yearth (obsolete)

From Middle English erthe, from Old English eorþe, from Proto-West Germanic *erþu, from Proto-Germanic *erþō (“dirt, ground, earth”) (compare West Frisian ierde, Low German Eerd, Dutch aarde, Dutch Low Saxon eerde, German Erde, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian jord), related to *erwô (“earth”) (compare Old High German ero, perhaps Old Norse jǫrfi), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (compare Ancient Greek *ἔρα (*éra, “earth”) in ἔραζε (éraze, “to the ground, to earth”), perhaps Tocharian B yare (“gravel”).

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 not related.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɜːθ/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɝθ/

  • Audio (US):

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• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɵːθ/
• (Ghana) IPA^(key): /ɜθ/, IPA^(key): /ɝθ/
• (Early Modern) IPA^(key): /ɛːrθ/, /ɛrθ/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)θ

earth

2. Alternative letter-case form of Earth; our planet, third out from the Sun.

   The astronauts saw the earth from the porthole.

   • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, , →OCLC, part I, page 193:

     We live in the flicker - may it last as long as the old earth keeps rolling!

• The names of celestial bodies are usually capitalized (Earth), even when used with the.

earth (countable and uncountable, plural earths)

2. (uncountable) Soil.

   This is good earth for growing potatoes.

3. (uncountable) Any general rock-based material.

   She sighed when the plane's wheels finally touched earth.

4. The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).

   Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.

6. (British) A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
7. The lair or den (as a hole in the ground) of an animal such as a fox.
8. A region of the planet; a land or country.
9. Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
10. The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
    • 1819 May, John Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, in Lamia, Isabella, the Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, London: [Thomas Davison] for Taylor and Hessey, , published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 5, page 116:

      "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,"—that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

11. (metonymically) The people on the globe.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Genesis 11:1, column 2:

      And the whole earth was of one language, and of one ſpeach.

12. 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.

13. (archaic) The human body.
14. (alchemy, philosophy and Taoism) The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
15. (chemistry, obsolete) Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.

• wychert
• yedding

earth (third-person singular simple present earths, present participle earthing, simple past and past participle earthed)

1. (UK, transitive) To connect electrically to the earth.

   Synonym: ground

   That noise is because the amplifier is not properly earthed.

2. (transitive) To bury.
   • 1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. ”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: [Samuel Richardson] for A Millar , and R Dodsley , published 1750, →OCLC, page 328:

     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.
   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. , London: Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC, Act IV, page 48:

     […] the Fox is earth’d, […]

   • 1819, John Mayer, The Sportsman's Directory, or Park and Gamekeeper's Companion:

     This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set.

4. (intransitive) To burrow.
   • a. 1740, Thomas Tickell, Fragment on Hunting:

     foxes earth'd

• earthing
• unearth

• Erath, rehat, ather-, Herta, Harte, rathe, Rathe, heart, th'are, thare, hater, Heart, Herat, Taher, Terah, Thera