Who named our planet "Earth"?

Question

It's a pretty cool name, but does anyone know who thought it up?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I think it's pretty impossible to say exactly who first named the planet 'Earth'. Actually, I really doubt one person really named it intentionally; rather it developed over time as part of the English language. Earth is Old English and German in origin, related to the Old Saxon 'ertha', the Dutch 'aerde', and the German 'erda'. Terra is a French and Latin word, and so isn't part of the 'Earth' etymology. I'm not really an expert on words and word origins, but it seems likely that people used Earth to mean 'land' and then it was the natural thing to refer to all the land and the planet.

Answer 2

We do not know, and I do not think there is really any way of knowing.

It may not be obvious to you, but what you are really asking is a linguistic
question. It is not a scientific question or even an historical question.

In English, 'earth' has been only recently (a few centuries) used for the planet
-- 'world' becomes more common the further back you go. But 'earth' has been used
for ground or soil much longer. 'earth' is also obviously and closely related to
the German 'Erde' which has a similar and probably longer usage for both planet,
ground, and soil.

When language gradually changes like this, and especially when a word is old, and
has related forms in other languages, its use can seldom be traced back to a
single 'namer' or 'inventor'.

Answer 3

This is the Gaia Hypothesis (pronounced Gay-a) named after the Greek word for the 'Earth Mother' - Gaea.
In 1979 James Lovelock, a British Scientist who worked for the NASA (USA) space program, reminded us of the idea that Planet Earth, like the Sun, is a conscious living being.

For just as our human body is composed of billions of cells working together as a single living being, so are the billions of life forms on Earth working together as a living super organism.

http://www.ozi.com/ourplanet/gaia.html

Answer 4

In English, 'earth' has been only recently (a few centuries) used for the planet
-- 'world' becomes more common the further back you go. But 'earth' has been used
for ground or soil much longer. 'earth' is also obviously and closely related to
the German 'Erde' which has a similar and probably longer usage for both planet,
ground, and soil.

When language gradually changes like this, and especially when a word is old, and
has related forms in other languages, its use can seldom be traced back to a
single 'namer' or 'inventor'.

Answer 5

The word "Earth" comes from an ancient word that means earth or ground. When that word was invented, people did not know that the Earth was a planet.

Answer 6

Earth is (beside Sedna) the only planet in the solar system, whose name is not derived from the Greek or Roman mythology, the origin of the now used form of naming comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Erda (Erdaz), which means ground, soil, and Earth, the word changed to Eorthe or Erthe in Old English and to Erde in German.

Answer 7

The word Earth originates from the Middle English word, erthe, which came from Old English eorthe; akin to Old High German erda. This then traces back to the Greek, eraze from the Hebrew erez, meaning ground.

Answer 8

The name comes from the Germanic name for dirt

Answer 9

Aliens

Answer 10

earth is the Latin word for the land we live on so i guess as time went on we just started to use the word earth as our planets name.