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Why isn't earth capitalized?


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I think it's one of those holdover words. It's considered generic because we don't know of any other planets which people can be from. There is only one planet to be born on and that is the earth. Therefore, we are born on the earth. However, it *is* capitalized when you are actually discussing planetary bodies. Crazy language.

 

And momma-Its name is not usually capitalized when speaking generically of the earth. It's one of the strange quirks of our language.

 

eta references:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/Capitalizing-Proper-Nouns.aspx

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Archive_(capitalization) (using this only because this page cites several references)

Edited by Mrs Mungo
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I think it's one of those holdover words. It's considered generic because we don't know of any other planets which people can be from. There is only one planet to be born on and that is the earth. Therefore, we are born on the earth. However, it *is* capitalized when you are actually discussing planetary bodies. Crazy language.

 

And momma-Its name is not usually capitalized when speaking generically of the earth. It's one of the strange quirks of our language.

 

 

I'm a sci-fi freak; Earth is never spoken of generically in my world :lol:

 

(thank you for the correction ;) )

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I'm a sci-fi freak; Earth is never spoken of generically in my world :lol:

 

(thank you for the correction ;) )

 

I'm also a sci-fi freak! :D One entire bookshelf in my house is sci-fi. :blush: In fact, that's the main reason I know this. My eldest asked me about it when she started reading sci-fi.

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This question one of the reasons why I can't pull myself away from The Boards! I learned something today that I didn't know before...and had fun doing it. So in a book by a sci-fi author, earth is Earth, but in a book by Jane Austen, should she ever have referred to the planet earth, it would be earth?! :lol::lol::lol::lol:

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This question one of the reasons why I can't pull myself away from The Boards! I learned something today that I didn't know before...and had fun doing it. So in a book by a sci-fi author, earth is Earth, but in a book by Jane Austen, should she ever have referred to the planet earth, it would be earth?! :lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

I think if you are not located on the earth then it is Earth, without the article. I think that's the rule. Kind of crazy, I know.

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