earth
The ground beneath our feet; the planet we live on; soil.
Etymology
From Old English eorþe, from Proto-Germanic *erþō, from PIE *dʰǵʰem- "earth, ground." The PIE root also gave rise to the word for "human" in many languages — Latin homō "man" literally means "earthling, one of the ground." To PIE speakers, humans were creatures of the earth.
The Journey: *dʰǵʰem- → earth
*dʰǵʰem-
*erþō
eorþe
earth
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *dʰǵʰem-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Greek | khthṓn |
| Latin | humus |
| Hittite | tēkan |
| Persian | zamīn |
| Russian | zemlja |
| Albanian | dhe |
| Sanskrit | kṣám |
| Lithuanian | žẽmė |
Did You Know?
Latin homō "human" and humus "soil" both come from PIE *dʰǵʰem- "earth." To the Indo-Europeans, a human was literally an "earthling." The word "humble" also derives from the same root — being "close to the ground."
This word descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *dʰǵʰem-. See the full root page for descendant trees, sound law references, and scholarly discussion.