Earth or earth?

eric11210 · Mar 15, 2007

Hi all,

Quick question. I seem to recall reading somewhere that in English you are supposed to refer to the planet in lower case as in "I'm from the planet earth." Or is that only in something like "What on earth?" Or am I totally wrong and Earth is the way to go? I mean, it is a proper name and I'm not sure why I saw that, but I recall having seen it many years ago. I ended up in my novel with earth sometimes and Earth other times depending on my mood. I plan to do a word replace to make them all one or the other, but before I do so, I need to know which is correct.

Thanks for any help.

Eric

Vincent · Mar 15, 2007

Earth for the planet, earth for the soil at your feet. I really don't know about 'what on earth'.

EDIT:

This might go better on the grammar board.

eric11210 · Mar 15, 2007

beezle said:
Earth for the planet, earth for the soil at your feet. I really don't know about 'what on earth'.

That's what I thought, but I for some reason seem to recall seeing that when the planet is referred it was in lower case also. Guess I was wrong. Just something I have a vague memory of from years ago.. .

Thanks.

Eric

Vincent · Mar 15, 2007

I could be wrong! I'm grammar-challenged. I might very well be. I'm just checking google and reading not to capitalize a planet's name unless used in relation to other celestial bodies.

J. Weiland · Mar 15, 2007

If it is a proper name, that is you are talking about the one planet named 'Earth' I assume it should always be with a Capital letter.

Michael Dracon · Mar 15, 2007

J. Weiland said:
If it is a proper name, that is you are talking about the one planet named 'Earth' I assume it should always be with a Capital letter.

That's the logic I use as well. It's a proper name of something, therefor it has a capital letter. Just substitute it with a name of another planet to test it out.

eric11210 · Mar 15, 2007

beezle said:
I could be wrong! I'm grammar-challenged. I might very well be. I'm just checking google and reading not to capitalize a planet's name unless used in relation to other celestial bodies.

I probably should have thought of that myself. Found this:

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

Apparently, I'm not totally insane. If you write it as "the earth" it's lowercase. If you just write Earth, it's uppercase. Kind of an odd convention. . .

i.e. The earth rotates around the sun.

Or I live on Planet Earth.

Anyway, guess I basically capitalize everywhere. Pretty sure I don't use the qualifier "the" anywhere. That's why I posed the question BTW in scifi. My novel is a scifi novel and my characters say things like "I'm from a planet called Earth."

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Eric

Pthom · Mar 15, 2007

In my SF stories, I don't care for the construction "the Earth" because it seems egocentric. I also don't care for using Terra (which was done in decades past and may still be) since it too, seems affected. If we're going out among the stars, I'd tell anyone curious enough to ask that I live on Earth, a planet in the system of Sol between the orbits of Venus and Mars.

Then, of course, that being would be thoroughly confused, because his name for my star is probably something like "Glxmord" and my planet is "Glxmord 3."

But that's all right 'cause my term for his planet is Arturus 4, even though he insists he comes from Vbrumx, fourth planet around S'klork.

Or that's what it sounds like.

Aaanyway, I'm in the proper noun camp, and always capitalize "Earth" when refering to our planet, and use "soil" for the stuff covering it inbetween all the water.

dclary · Mar 15, 2007

I hate those freakin' Vbrumxians. So snooty.

Pthom · Mar 15, 2007

Actually, the only one I met called herself a Vbrumxite. ... I think that's the right term--her...they have 17 different sexes.

eric11210 · Mar 16, 2007

Eh. I prefer to refer to our little rock as Blito P3.

And no, I'm not a Scientologist. Just enjoyed that series tremendously. (No, I'm not telling you which one -- figure it out

).

Eric

Kentuk · Mar 16, 2007

Someone should tell those pesky people that calling their planet 'earth' just reveals how backward and unsophisticated they are. They really should come up with a real name.

benbradley · Mar 16, 2007

eric11210 said:
I probably should have thought of that myself. Found this:

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

Apparently, I'm not totally insane. If you write it as "the earth" it's lowercase. If you just write Earth, it's uppercase. Kind of an odd convention. . .

i.e. The earth rotates around the sun.

Somehow I don't like that convention, don't think it's right, or whatever. When speaking of the Queen of England, would one say "the queen?" I would write that sentence as:

The Earth rotates around the Sun.

This even says "the Earth" in the first paragraph:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth
but then, everyone knows not to trust Wikipedia...

I'd change "rotates around" to orbits, but that's another level of things I'd change...

kct webber · Mar 17, 2007

When dealing with 'people' from other worlds, wouldn't the name of our planet automatically become a proper name? Sort'a like a nation? Just like human would become Human in relation to Vbrumxians (or Vbrumxites).

I'm not a scifi writer, but that would be my logic. *shrugs*

In my fantasy WIP, my humans are Humans just because of the existence of another intelligent species.

Richard White · Mar 17, 2007

We had this type of discussion in my Astronomy class this semester.

Colloquial> Earth, Moon, Sun

Official Astronomical Names: Terra, Luna, Sol

Other (less used) name for Terra - Sol III. (Mercury being Sol I and Neptune being Sol VIII.)

Tallymark · Mar 17, 2007

I think it would be fantastic fun to tell a member of an alien race about our home solar system, because they'd be like "So...you named your planet 'Dirt', you named your sun 'Sun', and you named your moon 'Moon'? The heck?"

And then they would become greatly confused, and inform us that the dolphins insist that the planet is named 'Water'.

And then Earthlings (Waterlings?) would be listed as the least creative species on this side of the galaxy.

(actually, I would bet that alien species, if they exist, would probably have named their worlds in similar ways).

Vincent · Mar 17, 2007

Dolphins naming our planet 'Water'... that just strikes me as very profound... I think I'll steal it. Thanks.

eric11210 · Mar 18, 2007

beezle said:
Dolphins naming our planet 'Water'... that just strikes me as very
profound... I think I'll steal it. Thanks.

Yup. And I think I'm gonna steal that joke for the aliens in my novel. Your planet is called dirt? I like that. . .

Eric

AzBobby · Mar 21, 2007

Not all conventions of English make good sense. That's why they change with the times.

Explanations notwithstanding, many, many examples exist of educated writing in which "earth" names our planet in lowercase while no other planet name (Mars, Jupiter, and so on) would be treated as such. It's a firm tradition.

I've had similar puzzlements over the lowercase "heaven" and "hell" when used as proper nouns naming them as specific places in the spirit world of various religions (not heaven and hell as colorful descriptions or states of mind). If I have to write something like "Nester the Long-eared Christmas Donkey lives in Heaven" I'm going to capitalize the place name, just as I would capitalize Valhalla.

There was something more generic about H/heaven and E/earth in the past. Earth was the only example of earth. And the heavens were everything, absolutely everything, that hung out of our reach above her. That's my best shot at understanding why these words fall outside the normal treatment of proper nouns in common tradition. We think of earth in a different way in modern times.

I see no harm in moving forward with more consistent styles -- if you treat any word as a proper noun, capitalize it.

Elektra · Mar 22, 2007

It's Earth if you're using it as the planet's name (The Earth rotates around the sun). It's earth if you use it as just a general, soil-like term (the earth on Jupiter contains no water--or maybe it does, what do I know?). What on Earth would be capitalized. Earth starts to look really, really funny after you read it a few times.

southern_cross3 · Mar 22, 2007

I don't think that normal English grammar applies here. The standard on how to treat earth/Earth comes from a point of view in which this planet is the only one of real consequence, and the only reason to refer to it by name would be in relation to the others.

In science fiction, this isn't the case, as we use planet names more like country names. So saying that "the earth rotates the sun" wouldn't quite work, because Mars does too. Yet you wouldn't say "mars rotates the sun"; you would capitalize.

Perhaps I'm thinking too hard, but many times people use "earth" as a synonym for "world". You know, "what on earth", "what in the world". The same idea. Being as sci-fi fans/writers have a much, much larger world, we see Earth as only a small part of the big picture, and therefore it needs to be properly and officially labeled.

Nangleator · Mar 27, 2007

I ran into trouble with a novel set entirely in another star system. I started saying "our solar system" and "our sun" and a beta reader pointed out that those names belong to Sol.

Dang it, saying "this stellar system" throughout the book annoyed me. I kept "sun" though. People, including my characters, can be quite illogical.

Earth or earth?

eric11210

Vincent

Cheers

eric11210

Vincent

Cheers

J. Weiland

Lurker

Michael Dracon

Urban Fantasy Geek

eric11210

Pthom

Word butcher

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

Pthom

Word butcher

eric11210

Kentuk

I want to write what I want to write

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

kct webber

Squirrel, Sekrit type, 1 ea.

Richard White

Stealthy Plot Bunny Peddler

Tallymark

Vincent

Cheers

eric11210

AzBobby

Ought to be writing instead

Elektra

Don't Call Me Sweetheart

southern_cross3

Nangleator

Rep Point Whore