Why do we not capitalize the word earth in the middle of a sentence?

Question

Why do we not capitalize the word earth in the middle of a sentence but we capitalize other words like God in the middle of a sentence and not god. Is that a rule just out of respect for God cause we are afraid of getting hit with a lighting bolt or something? For instance, we capitalize peoples names. God is not a real name, God is a generic term for a deity. In other words, you wouldn't capitalize the word Man unless of course it was at the beginning of the sentence. I know there are people who would consider God to be a proper name, but my understanding is that the word God is generic for some sort of deity.
Do you know how these rule got put into place?

Answer 1

That's not the rule. The rule is if you are talking about the name of the planet (proper noun) you capitalize Earth. If you are talking about the noun meaning dirt then you don't capitalize earth. Also, as with god/God if you were referring to a generic noun you could not capitalize it (many earths orbit this star) but we have the word "world" to use in leue of that. Also if it was comparing other worlds to our home Earth you would still capitalize it in "many Earths orbit this star".

People here are often lazy with capitalization, myself included. If it's not capitalized in a textbook though it means dirt/soil.

Answer 2

Should Earth Be Capitalized

Answer 3

Do You Capitalize Earth

Answer 4

If you are referring to the name of our planet, then it should always be capitalized. The fact that many people do not follow the rule doesn't mean that it has been changed.

By the way, if you use the word 'god' generically, it does not get capitalized. You only do that when referring to Him, specifically.

Answer 5

This is a really interesting question. It is a shame none of the other responses actually answer it. I noticed many years ago that my Oxford Dictionary had earth rather than Earth, and included: "The earth is the third planet from the sun..." It seems strange that both earth and sun begin with lower case letters. I'm sorry that I can't say why, but if you are inclined to answer the question, please don't just ignore the question and state that earth should be capitalised!

Answer 6

If we speak with proper grammar then it is actually a rule to capitalize Earth in the middle of a sentence. If you haven't noticed already the English language doesn't really pay any attention to rules like that.

Answer 7

In my opinion, it would depend on how you were using the word. If you are refering to the planet Earth, as a proper noun, I would capitalize it. If you were moving earth, as in dirt, I would not capitalize it.

Same thing is true with the word God. If I was going to refer to a specific God like "God is good," it is capitalized. If I was going to refer to many gods, "the gods of ancient Greece" I would not capitalize.

Answer 8

When you use Earth to refer to the planet Earth, it is capitalized. Other uses of earth are not capitalized, such as, "The earth is different than the sea or air."

I hope this helps.

Answer 9

What is all this "God" talk about? Earth should be capitalized if it refers to the planet Earth. (<<<, see I did it again)

Some say the word earth is only capitalized if it's included in a list of other planets such as "One day aliens might visit Earth, Mars and Jupiter."

Answer 10

Mostly because we are careless. Sometimes we even de-capitalize god. (See, I just did.) If we were doing some sort of proper research paper, of course Earth would be capitalized.