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You are here: Home / Language / How Did Earth Get its Name and Why Is it the Only Planet Not Named After Greek or Roman Mythology?

How Did Earth Get its Name and Why Is it the Only Planet Not Named After Greek or Roman Mythology?

June 8, 2020 by Karen Hill

Earth got its name long before the sixteenth century, the time of Copernicus, when humans started considering that we are on just another planet.

Earth comes from the ancient Germanic languages and originally meant the soil that was the source of all life.

Earth is the English name, but hundreds of languages all refer to our fertile soil, our Planet Earth, as a nursing mother.

Terra Mater means “Mother Earth.”

In Roman mythology, the goddess of the Earth was Tellus, the fertile soil.

71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered with water.

Earth is the third planet from the sun and the fifth largest.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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