Our planet.?

Question

What is the origin of the name, Earth? Why is it called Earth why not big ball of rock, where did Earth come from as a name

Answer 1

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 2

"Earth" is another word which is found almost exclusively in the Germanic languages. Probably people speaking Germanic about two thousand (2000) years ago said something like "erþó" or "erþâ". 3 This word already meant "earth" even then, and no one has any certain ideas what the word might have been like earlier or what it meant. About one thousand (1000) years ago people speaking Old English might have said "eorðe".

The word "earth" can be used to mean a number of different things. It can simply mean "dirt". This may have been one of the earliest meanings. What do we stand on? If you are inside you are probably standing on a floor, but if you are standing outside you are often standing on dirt. Perhaps, people came to think of the whole area they were standing on as "dirt" or "earth". By the time people were speaking Old English, about one thousand (1000) years ago, "earth" could already mean the world on which people live. It took longer for "earth" to come to mean "Planet Earth"--until around 1400 CE or so.