EARTH (a word

See also:

• COMMON

common to

See also:

• TEUTONIC
• TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

Teutonic

See also:

• LANGUAGES

languages, cf. Ger. Erde, Dutch aarde, Swed. and

See also:

• DAN

Dan. jord; outside Teutonic it appears only in the Gr. 'pq'e, on the ground; it has been connected by some etymologists with the

See also:

• ARYAN

Aryan

See also:

• ROOT (late O.E. rot, adopted from Scand., cf. Norw. and Swed. rot, Dan. rod; the true O.E. word was wyrt, plant, represented in Ger. Wurz or Wurzel; the ultimate root is the same in both words, and is seen in Lat. radix)
• ROOT, ELIHU (1845– )

root ar-, to plough, which is seen in  the Lat. arare, obsolete Eng . " ear," and Gr. apouv, but this is now considered very doubtful; see G . Curtius, Greek Etymology, Eng. trans., i . 426; Max Muller, Lectures, 8th ed. i . 294) . From early times the word " earth " has been used in several connexions—from that of soil or ground to that of the planet which we inhabit, but it is difficult to trace the exact historic sequence of the diverse usages . In the cosmogony of the Pythagoreans, Platonists and other philosophers, the term or its equivalent denoted an element or fundamental quality which conferred upon matter the character of earthiness; and in the subsequent development of theories as to the ultimate composition of matter by the alchemists, iatrochemists, and early phlogistonists an element of the same name was retained (see ELEMENT) . In modern chemistry, the common term " earth " is applied to certain oxides:—the" alkaline earths " (q.v.) are the oxides of calcium (lime), barium (baryta) and strontium (strontia); the " rare earths " (q.v.) are the oxides of a certain class of rare metals .