earth

Etymology

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) in ἔραζε (éraze, “on the ground”), perhaps Tocharian B yare (“gravel”). Probably unrelated, and 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.

noun

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. The ground, land (as opposed to the sky or sea).
   Birds are of the sky, not of the earth.
   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. 2013-06-07, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
4. (Britain) A connection electrically to the earth ((US) ground); on equipment: a terminal connected in that manner.
5. The lair or den (as a hole in the ground) of an animal such as a fox.
6. A region of the planet; a land or country.
7. Worldly things, as against spiritual ones.
8. The world of our current life (as opposed to heaven or an afterlife).
9. (metonymically) The people on the globe.
10. 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) The human body.
12. (alchemy, philosophy and Taoism) The aforementioned soil- or rock-based material, considered one of the four or five classical elements.
13. (chemistry, obsolete) Any of certain substances now known to be oxides of metal, which were distinguished by being infusible, and by insolubility in water.

verb

1. (UK, transitive) To connect electrically to the earth.
   That noise is because the amplifier is not properly earthed.
2. (transitive) To bury.
3. (transitive) To hide, or cause to hide, in the earth; to chase into a burrow or den.
   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. 1819, John Mayer, The Sportsman's Directory, or Park and Gamekeeper's Companion
4. (intransitive) To burrow.
   foxes earth'd a. 1740, Thomas Tickell, Fragment on Hunting