What is the etymology of the word "Earth" ?

Question

I was listening to the Arabic version of an English song which had the word "earth" in it, and i noticed that even in Arabic, the word sounded a lot like "earth" (it was something like "ard") too. They sounded a bit too much like each other for it to be a coincidence. Knowing that English has borrowed many words from Arabic in the past, and Arabic is also borrowing a lot of words from English in the present, it made me wonder, which language borrowed from which? Or more basically, what is the etymology of the word?

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology_of_the_word...

heres a whole article from the evil depths of wikipedia.

"Several Semitic languages have words for "earth" similar to those in Indo-European languages. Arabic has ard; Akkadian, irtsitu; Aramaic, araa; Phoenician, erets (which appears in the Mesha Stele); and Hebrew, ארץ (arets, or erets when not preceded by a definite article, or when followed by a noun modifier). The etymological connection between the words in Indo-European and Semitic languages are uncertain, though, and may simply be coincidence."

Answer 2

Earth Etymology

Source(s): https://shrink.im/a0VSP

Answer 3

Short Answer: We don't know yet, but linguists are working on that question.

Earth has been around since the Middle Ages and it has cognates in all the Germanic languages. Interestingly, it is supposed that this word came from a Proto-Indo-European root, but the only cognate outside of the Germanic family is "ert" from Middle Irish... which itself could have come from English.

A word that old wasn't borrowed from Arabic anytime recently. However, there is a very controversial and interesting theory that posits Early Germanic explorers had contact with Semitic peoples, resulting in some language exchange. However, there is only one piece of historical evidence and some scant linguistic evidence.

However, it could be coincidental. There are bound to be identical words occasionally... it happens all the time.

Check out "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue" which is where I read about it. It's interesting to think about... Great question!

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:

What is the etymology of the word "Earth" ?

I was listening to the Arabic version of an English song which had the word "earth" in it, and i noticed that even in Arabic, the word sounded a lot like "earth" (it was something like "ard") too. They sounded a bit too much like each other for it to be a coincidence....

Source(s): etymology word quot earth quot: https://biturl.im/tUzg1

Answer 5

'earth' has been around considerably longer than the Middle Ages, since it was /airtha/ in Gothic [ a Germanic language now extinct] in the 4th century.

Source(s): studied language history

Answer 6

Old English. eorþe "ground, soil, dry land,"