Earth or earth

tarkine said:

Okay, I think I've asked this question before but I couldn't find the thread.

From my fuzzy wuzzy memory it was supposed to be earth unless I was talking about Venus, Mars and Earth.

But that means that if I arrive on Mars and I meet a Martian, I'd be writing in my journal "I love mars. It's such a red planet and I met this great martian called Fred."

So I invite Fred back to earth and he says "I really love being on earth."

I can't help myself. I want to give earth a big E and mars a big M because they are names like Paul, Angela and Fred.

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I think you're making this too hard.

When you're on Mars, the planet is named Mars, and the beings native thereon are Martians, just as when you're on a mountain in Italy, the natives there are Italians.

If you take Fred, the Martian, back to Terra, the third planet many of its inhabitants call Earth, then you could introduce Fred, the Martian, to Tito, the Italian.

It's when we speak of the earth and the moon and the sun that they aren't capitalized.

It's the same back on Mars; its two moons are Phobos and Demos. It's all in the context.

When referring to the planet, it should be capitalized, just like the other planets. It's a proper noun.

When referring to dirt, it should not be.

caw

Blacbird is right.

When you are referring to the planet Earth, then it gets a capital. when you call soil earth, it does not get a capital. As you pointed out, Earth is the name of a specific thing.

Agreed keep it simple, proper noun and be consistent in the usage. (Hmm... yet another check of the sprawling tome.)

I have to say we humans have been woefully uninventive: The Earth, the Moon, the Sun.

Actually, it's not that simple.

http://dictionary.classic.reference.com/help/faq/language/s05.html

Just Google it and you'll find all sorts of conflicting answers.

The consensus is: if you're using it in the context of other astronomical proper nouns, capitalize it. Otherwise, capitalization is at your discretion.

tarkine said:

Okay, I'll go back through and capitalize it, because to me and to my story I'm talking about the planet Earth not earth as in soil/dirt.

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Good decision, because Dictionary.com's definition is as clear as mud--or as Dictionary.com would coach: "also known as Mud."

It's great for those Earth-is-the-center-of-the-universe writers to write "the Earth," "the Moon," "the Sun" as if there were no other; however, for science and science fiction writers, those celestial bodies have names: Terra, Luna, and Sol respectively.

Beings on Mars may well call their planet Ground, as the people on this planet say "I live on Earth," but I doubt they would call their moons "the Moons." One is Phobos; the other is Demos. The same would apply to Jupiter's many moons. Each has a name.

As a fiction writer of other worlds, you can name them and capitalize them as your characters please.

From a thread on sun vs Sun:

Terie said:

Let's see what dictionaries say! (What a concept: writers looking up words in dictionaries to check their usage.)

Both the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (American) and the Concise Oxford Dictionary (British) state that 'sun', 'moon', and 'earth' can be capitalised when used in reference to the bodies floating in space, but neither say they must be. In all other contexts, neither dictionary specifies use of capitalisation.

The dictionary. One of a writer's best friends.

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I thought I'd drop in to cause confusion.

I wouldn't necessarily capitalise Earth (or the moon or sun). For instance, I would write "why on earth". But I would capitalise Mars. But I would not capitalise martian, unless I was talking about a resident of The Red Planet (or do I mean the Red Planet...or even the red planet).

If it's the planet, give it a capital letter.

tarkine said:

But if I was going outside to play in the earth, that would be different to if I was an astronaut and returning to the Earth.

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There . . . fixed it. You don't go to the Mars. You go to Mars. Likewise, you don't go to the Earth. You go to Earth.

In my own writing preferences:


a handful of dirt = earth

every other usage = Earth

Even if a character of mine says "What on Earth are you doing?" I will always capitalize Earth because it's NOT a reference to a handful of dirt.

Chase said:

There . . . fixed it. You don't go to the Mars. You go to Mars. Likewise, you don't go to the Earth. You go to Earth.

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Actually, I don't mind "the" in this situation, just like saying "I went to the hospital."

Plot Device said:

Actually, I don't mind "the" in this situation, just like saying "I went to the hospital."

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That's true, but we're discussing capitalization, and "hospital" isn't capitalized. If it were capped, as in "I went to St. Hope Hospital," you wouldn't put "the" in front.

Comparing apples and oranges only works on limited points.

Afterthought: Instead of looking for logic -- or worse, takin a poll -- perhaps a better tactic is just to admit you're going to capitalize "earth" wherever it even suggests it may be a name. Writers do it all the time with "god" and "marine" and countless other words. I have similar quirks about which I figure: "If I'm going to be rejected for something like this, then more power to the gatekeepers."

Ignore the rest of these lot. Capitalize the "a." It's eArth.

tarkine said:

Sheer brilliance! I'm going to put you in charge of The Capitalization pOlIcE.

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Ahem. That should be TeH capItaliSation pOlIcE. (Heck, as long as we're skewing off-topic, might as well bring in teh LOLz, too, eh? )

Now you're bOth just being silly.