| 释义 |
▪ I. earth, n.1|ɜːθ|
Forms: α. 1–4 eorðe, 1– Northumb. eorðu, eorðe, 2 horðe, 3–6 erð(e, 4–5 irthe, urth(e, 4–6 yerth(e, herthe, 5 ȝerþ, yorth, 6 earthe, yearth(e, (erith), 8–9 Sc. yirth, 9 Sc. and dial. yearth, orth, 6– earth. β. 3–5 erd(e, 6 eard, eird, 8 yird, 9 Sc. and north. dial. yird, yeird, eard.
[Common Teut.: OE. eorþe, wk. fem., corresponds to OS. ertha wk. fem. (MDu. aerde, erde, Du. aarde), OHG. erda str. and wk. fem. (MHG., mod.G. erde), ON. iǫrð (Sw., Da. jord), Goth. airþa str. fem.:—OTeut. *erþâ, (? WGer.) erþôn-; without the dental suffix the word appears in OHG. ero earth, Gr. ἔρα-ζε on the ground; no other non-Teutonic cognates are known to exist, the plausible connexion with WAryan root *ar, to plough, being open to serious objection.
With the northern and Sc. forms with -d cf. ME. dede for death; the change of -þ into -d is rare at the end of a word, though in medial positions it is frequent in Sc. The northern forms of the present word were in the early ME. period graphically coincident with those of erd, and in some phrases the two words seem to have been confused.]
(Men's notions of the shape and position of the earth have so greatly changed since Old Teutonic times, while the language of the older notions has long outlived them, that it is very difficult to arrange the senses and applications of the word in any historical order. The following arrangement does not pretend to follow the development of ideas.)
A. Simple uses.
I. The ground.
1. Considered as a mere surface. † to win earth on: to gain ground upon; to lose earth: to lose ground.
Beowulf 1533 Wearp ða wunden mæl..þæt hit on eorðan læᵹ stið and stylecᵹ. c1000ælfric Hom. in Sweet Ags. Reader (ed. 5) 85 Iohannes..astrehte his lichoman to eorðan on langsummum gebede. c1200Ormin 8073 Forr he [Herod] warrþ seoc, and he bigann To rotenn bufenn eorþe. 1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 13860 Þey wyþ-drowen hem, & erþe þey les. 1375Barbour Bruce iv. 284 The Kyng..Wes laid at erd. c1400Destr. Troy 6817 Sum [he] hurlit to þe hard yerth. c1435Torr. Portugal 657 Twenty fote he garde hyme goo, Thus erthe on hym he wane. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. v. i. 199 They kneele, they kisse the Earth. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 192 Let your Gardiner endeavour to apply the Collateral Branches of his Wall-Fruits..to the Earth or Borders. 1847Tennyson Princ. v. 486 Part roll'd on the earth and rose again.
2. Considered as a solid stratum.
a1300Cursor M. 4699 Þe erth it clang, for drught and hete. c1340Ibid. (Fairf.) 16784 The day was derker then the night Þe erthe quoke with-alle. 1562W. Bullein Bk. Simples 57 a, The people..are constrained to inhabite in Caves, under the yearth. 1567J. Maplet Gr. Forest 8 b, Of Gemmes, some are found in the earthes vaines, & are digged vp with Metalles. 1790Cowper Iliad iii. 339 Who under earth on human kind avenge Severe, the guilt of violated oaths. [1865Frost & Fire II. 182 Them is what we call marble stones; they grow in the yearth.]
†3. Considered as a place of burial; esp. in phrase to bring (a person) to (the) earth. Obs.
c1205Lay. 4283 To gadere come his eorles & brohten hime to eorðe. c1305Edm. the Conf. 594 in E.P.P. (1862) 86 Ded he com iwis & þer he was ibroȝt an vrþe. 1387E.E. Wills (1882) 2 Y be-quethe iii.li to bringe me on erthe. 1541Bury Wills (1850) 261 [William Clovyer, of Chelsworth, charged his wife] to brynge me vnto the herthe honestly accordynge to my value. Ibid. 141, I commytt my body to be buryed in the churche erthe. 1590Marlowe Edw. II, v. i, Every earth is fit for burial.
4. The hole or hiding-place of a burrowing animal, as a badger, fox, etc.; also fig. to run to earth: to chase (the quarry) to its earth; fig. to capture or find (something sought for) after a long search. Similarly to go to earth, said of the quarry; also fig.
1575Turberv. Bk. Venerie 187 If you..put the Terryer into an earth where foxes be or Badgerdes, they will leave that earth. 1611Cotgr. Accul,..the bottome..of a foxes, or badgers earth. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xi. 183 Frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth. 1781P. Beckford Hunting (1802) 332, I recommend to you, to turn them into large covers and strong earths. 1828Scott F.M. Perth I. 311, I am ready to take you to any place of safety you can name..But you cannot persuade me that you do not know what earth to make for. 1845Darwin Voy. Nat. vi. (1879) 113 They were generally near their earths, but the dogs killed one. 1857Kingsley Two Y. Ago xxviii, Frightened—beat—run to earth myself, although I talked so bravely of running others to earth just now. 1859Tennyson Enid 253 And onward to the fortress rode the three..‘So,’ thought Geraint, ‘I have track'd him to his earth’. 1876[see run v. 42 (fig.)]. 1888Spectator 7 Jan. 20/2 All the men who helped to run to earth the various members of the Ruthven family..were richly rewarded. 1913Punch 26 Feb. 153/1 Men who used to go to earth behind evening papers on the entrance of a woman now spring to their feet in platoons without a moment's hesitation. 1917M. Webb (title) Gone to Earth. 1950R. Macaulay World my Wilderness xvi. 194 The policeman..turned back to assist his colleagues in flushing Barbary, so mysteriously gone to earth. 1953‘F. O'Connor’ Stories 63 Eventually he would run her to earth in some snug with a couple of cronies.
5. The soil as suited for cultivation; sometimes with a defining word denoting the nature or quality of the soil.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke xiii. 7 Hrendas forðon ða ilca to huon uutedlice eorðo ᵹi-onetað. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 155 Sum ful on þe gode eorðe and þat com wel forð. c1340Cursor M. 27268 (Fairf.) Tilmen..better þaire awen erþ tilis. c1440Promp. Parv. 141 Erye, or erthe [erde K], terra, humus, tellus. c1420Pallad. on Husb. i. 81 The bitterest erthe & werst that thou canst thinke. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §13 To plowe his barley-erthe. 1557Lanc. Wills (1854) I. 143 On close lyeinge nerest unto James Bailies called the merled earthe. 1617Markham Caval. iii. 29 When you finde the chase to runne ouer any faire earth, as either ouer More, Medow, Heath [etc.] all which my countrymen of the North call skelping earths. 1751Chambers Cycl. s.v. Earth, By means of sand it is, that the fatty earth is rendered fertile. 1821Mrs. Wheeler Westmorld. Dial. 71 They racken his earth is as gud as onny ith parrish.
6. Electr. The ground considered as the medium by which a circuit is completed. Hence used for: Connection of a wire conductor with the earth, either accidental (with the result of leakage of current or dangerous differences of potential) or intentional (as for the purpose of providing a return path for a telegraph current, etc.). (Cf. ground n. 15 b.)
[1773H. Cavendish Jrnl. 9 Feb. in Electr. Researches (1879) 267 It was suspected that this increase of separation of the balls before they closed was owing to the wire designed to carry off the el[ectricity] to earth not conducting fast enough. ]1868L. Clark Elem. Treat. Electr. Measurement vi. 42 The earth connections should therefore be carefully looked to occasionally. If a station have a defective earth, and have two wires leading to it, the evil will generally disclose itself. 1870R. Ferguson Electr. 250 An ‘earth’, however, is generally put at each station. 1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 225 Upon no account whatever is a leaden gas-pipe to be employed for the purpose of affording earth. Ibid. 243 Earths are indicated by an increase in the strength of the current at the sending end, and by a decrease in the strength, or the entire cessation of it, at the other end. Ibid. 253 If the earth at B is bad while that at A and at C is good, then a part of A's current, on reaching B, instead of going to earth there, will take the course of the wire to C, working C's apparatus, and go to earth at C. 1901L. M. Waterhouse Conduit Wiring 17 When the cables are pulled through, the braiding (and perhaps the rubber) is torn off and the result is a bad ‘earth’ at some future time. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 523/2 The signals received on such sensitive instruments..are liable to be disturbed by the return currents of other systems..and to obviate this it is necessary to form the ‘earth’ for the cable a few miles out at sea. 1966Buying Secondhand (Consumers' Assoc.) 71 Earth is always green or green/yellow except in German-made appliances where earth is red.
II. The world on which we dwell.
7. The dry land, as opposed to the sea.
c1000ælfric Gen. i. 10 And God geciᵹde þa driᵹnisse eorðan. c1160Hatton Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 15 ᵹe befareð sæ and eorðan. c1250Gen. & Ex. 116 Ðe ðridde dai..was water and erðe o sunder sad. a1300Cursor M. 383 Þe watris all he calid þe se, Þe drey he calid erd. 1382Wyclif Gen. i. 10 God clepid the drie erthe. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 624 The seat of men, Earth, with her nether Ocean circumfus'd. 1712–4Pope Rape Lock iv. 119 Sooner let earth, air, sea to Chaos fall. 1826J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. I. 6 There's sae strong a spirit of life hotchin over yearth and sea.
8. The world as including land and sea; as distinguished from the (material) heaven.
Beowulf 92 (Gr.) Se ælmihtiᵹa eorðan w[orhte]. c1175Lamb. Hom. 139 Sunnen dei was iseȝan þet formeste liht buuen eorðe. c1205Lay. 4154 He somenede ferd Swulc nes næuere eær on erde. c1250Gen. & Ex. 40 Of noȝt Was heuene and erðe samen wroȝt. c1320Cast. Loue 95 God atte begynnynges Hedde i-maad heuene wiþ ginne..And þe eorþe þer-after þer-wiþ. 1698J. Keill Exam. Th. Earth (1734) 127 What proportion all the Rivers in the Earth bear to the Po. 1747J. Scott Christ. Life III. 489 Spreading..even to the utmost ends of the earth. a1813A. Wilson Rab & Ringan Poet. Wks. (1846) 147 He ca'd the kirk the church, the yirth the globe. 1854Tomlinson Arago's Astron. 99 Men for a long while regarded the earth as a boundless plain.
9. a. Considered as the present abode of man; frequently contrasted with heaven or hell. In poet. and rhet. use often without the article.
c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxviii. 18 Me is ᵹeseald ælc anweald on heofonan and on eorþan [950 Lindisf. on eorðo]. c1175Lamb. Hom. 47 Heo on eorðe ȝeueð reste to alle eorðe þrelles wepmen and wifmen of heore þrel weorkes. a1300Cursor M. 29280 Crist has here in irthe leuyd Þe hele of cristendom and heuyd. Ibid. 71 [Scho] saues me first in herth fra syn, And heuen blys me helps to wyn. c1380Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 515 To conquere alle seculer lordship in þis eorþe. c1400Apol. Loll. 8 Wat þu byndist vpon ȝerþe, it schal be boundoun al so in heuin. c1420Chron. Vilod. 462 Shalle not long wt ȝou in urthe a byde. c1430Life St. Kath. (1884) 13 And he..loueth hir chastite a monge alle þe virgyns in erthe. c1500Lancelot 128 For in this erith no lady is so fare. 1546Primer Hen. VIII, 74 To whom..In heaven & yerth be laud and praise. Amen. 1597J. Payne Royal Exch. 37, I came not to send peace in to the yerthe but warr. 1601Shakes. Jul. C. i. iii. 45 Those that haue knowne the Earth so full of faults. 1667Milton P.L. ix. 99 O Earth! how like to Heav'n, if not preferr'd More justly. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 813 Mighty Cæsar..On the glad Earth the Golden Age renews. 1813Hogg Queen's Wake 182 But Kilmeny on yirth was nevir mayre seine. 1858Trench Parables ii. (1877) 15 Earth is not a shadow of heaven, but heaven..a dream of earth.
b. transf. The inhabitants of the world.
1549Bk. Com. Prayer, Benedicite, O let the Earth, speak good of the Lord. 1611Bible Gen. xi. 1 The whole earth was of one language.
c. In the intensive expression on earth, chiefly in interrogative and negative contexts. Also, with a superlative, used as an intensive phr.
1774Goldsm. Retal. 103 With no reason on earth to go out of his way, He turned and he varied full ten times a day. 1847J. Carlyle Let. 15 July (1883) I. 389 If I could have done anything on earth but cry. 1859Princess Royal Let. 26 Aug. in R. Fulford Dearest Child (1964) 207, I cannot see what on earth he can have of very urgent business here in November. 1862Thackeray Philip (1872) 228 What scheme on (h)earth are you driving at? 1873‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age 29 I've got the biggest scheme on earth—and I'll take you in! 1876R. Broughton Joan xiii, You people really have the worst small-beer in Europe. Where on earth did you get it? 1882Mrs. J. H. Riddell Daisies & Buttercups i. iv. 121 What on earth did it all matter to me? 1885‘F. Anstey’ Tinted Venus 128 Why on earth was she making this dead set at him? 1910Wodehouse Psmith in City xviii. 158 Master Edward Waller..in frocks, looking like a gargoyle;..in sailor suit, looking like nothing on earth.
d. Colloq. phr. the earth, used in intensive expressions indicative of great or excessive ambition, cost, expense, etc.; to cost the earth: see cost v. 1 d.
1928Wodehouse Money for Nothing vii. 132 What's the matter with you that you always want the earth? 1952― Barmy in Wonderland xiv. 137, I pay a director the earth. Where is he? 1958Engineering 4 Apr. 427/2 The customer has a perfect right to ask for the earth, but the supplier, if he is wise, will not necessarily let him have it. 1961A. Christie Pale Horse xii. 129 Would it be terribly expensive?.. She'd heard they charged the earth.
10. a. Considered as a sphere, orb, or planet.
c1400Rom. Rose 5339 Erthe, that bitwixe is sett The sonne and hir [the moon]. 1555Eden Decades W. Ind. Cont. (Arb.) 45 A demonstration of the roundenesse of the earth. 1658Culpepper Astrol. Judgem. Dis. 18 The Earth is a great lump of dirt rolled up together, and..hanged in the Air. 1726tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 403 The Place of the Aphelion or Perihelion of the Earth. 1796H. Hunter tr. St. Pierre's Stud. Nat. (1799) I. Introd. 32 The Earth is lengthened out at the Poles. 1854Brewster More Worlds Introd. 2 The earth is a planet.
†b. transf. A world resembling the earth; a (supposed) habitable planet.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 381 He affirmed..the Moon [to be] an earth, having Mountains and Valleys, Cities and Houses in it. 1684T. Burnet Th. Earth I. 168 We will consider..the rest of the earths, or of the planets within our heavens. 1841Lane Arab. Nts. I. 23, This is the 1st, or highest, of 7 earths.
III. †11. [? After L. terra.] A country, land; portion of the earth's surface. Obs.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. John iii. 22 æfter ðas cum se hælend..in iudea eorðu [975 Rushw. eorðo]. a1300Cursor M. 5484 Ioseph..first was berid in þat contre, Siþen born til his erth was he. c1382Wyclif Ezek. xxi. 2 Sone of man..prophecy thou aȝens the erthe of Israel. c1435Torr. Portugal 1325 They yave Ser Torent that he wan, Both the erth and the woman. 1556Lauder Tract. (1864) 270 And..ȝe be nocht feird But doute for to possesse the eird. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 344 This hand That swayes the earth this Climate ouerlookes. 1628Hobbes Thucyd. (1822) 41 The Athenians have the spirit not to be slaves to their earth.
IV. As a substance or material.
12. a. The material of which the surface of the ground is composed, soil, mould, dust, clay.
a1000Guthlac 351 (Gr.) Þeah min ban and blod butu ᵹeweorðen eorðan to eacan. a1175Cott. Hom. 221 God..cweð þat he wolde wercan man of eorðan. a1300Cursor M. 928 Vnto þat erth þou was of tan. a1300Havelok 740 A litel hus to maken of erthe. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 427 Askes and pouder, erthe and clay. 1534Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) C v, To graue..in erthe, and other sculptures. 1664Evelyn Kal. Hort. (1729) 193 Now is your Season for Circumposition by Tubs or Baskets of Earth. 1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 15 Mould, Sand, Gravil or Clay (all which I call Earth). 1806Gazetteer Scotl. 54 Alternate strata of earth and limestone. 1836Thirlwall Greece II. xiv. 213 The envoys..undertook to give earth and water. 1865G. Macdonald A. Forbes III. 168 ‘Sober floories that smell o' the yird like’.
†b. Clay as material for pottery. Obs.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 69 He wolde euer be serued in vessels of erth. 1660Act 12 Chas. II, iv. Sched. s.v. Bottles, Bottles..of Earth or Stone the dozen.
c. In Sugar-making. A layer of earth spread over the raw sugar in the process of refining.
1752Chambers Cycl. s.v. Sugar, When the second earth is taken off, they cleanse the surface of the sugar with a brush.
13. a. As the type of dull, dead matter.
1593Shakes. Rich. II, iii. iii. 78 Dar'st thou, thou little better thing then earth, Divine his downfall?
b. As a disparaging term for precious metal.
1612W. Parkes Curtaine Dr. (1876) 34 My bagges are full..with the white and red earth of the world.
c. Used for: The body. Cf. dust, clay.
a1600Shakes. Sonn. cxlvi, Poore soule the center of my sinfull earth. 1611Beaum. & Fl. Maid's Trag. v. (1679) 19 This earth of mine doth tremble, and I feel A stark affrighted motion in my blood. 1822Shelley Hellas 21 The indignant spirit cast its mortal garment Among the slain—dead earth upon the earth.
14. Earth as one of the four so-called ‘elements’. Also, in pre-scientific chemistry, one of the supposed five (or six) elements; see quot. 1778.
a1300Fragm. Pop. Sc. (Wright) 267 Of this four elementz ech quik thing y-maked is, Of urthe, of water, and of eyr, and of fur, i-wis. 1393Gower Conf. III. 92 Four elements there ben diverse, The first of hem men erthe call. 1564P. Moore Hope Health i. iii. 5 The yearth is the loweste and heauiest element. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. i. v. 294 You should not rest Betweene the elements of ayre and earth. 1778Dict. of Art & Sciences, s.v. Element, The elements..to which all bodies may be..reduced are..Water..Air..Oil..Salt..Earth.
15. Chem. (See quots.) In mod. use restricted to certain metallic oxides, agreeing in having little taste or smell, and in being uninflammable, e.g. magnesia, alumina, zirconia, and the ‘alkaline earths’ baryta, lime, strontia.
a1728Woodward (J.) Earths are opake, insipid, and, when dried, friable, or consisting of parts easy to separate, and soluble in water. 1751Sir J. Hill Mat. Med. (J.) The five genera of earths are, 1. Boles, 2. Clays, 3. Marls, 4. Ochres, 5. Tripelas. 1791Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. i. i. 22 They unite with acids, alkalis..and some earths, principally alumine. 1814Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. 12 Four Earths generally abound in soils, the aluminous, the siliceous, the calcareous, and the magnesian. 1863–79Watts Dict. Chem. II. 360 Earths, this name is applied to the oxides of the metals, barium, strontium, etc.
B. earth- in comb.
I. General relations.
1. attributive.
a. Pertaining to the earth as a world, or as a globe or planet; as in earth-child, earth-god, earth-goddess, earth-history, earth-line, earth-lord, earth-magic, earth-measure, earth-noise, earth-pole, earth-power, earth-surface, earth-time, earth-year.
b. Pertaining to the ground, dwelling or existing on, near, or below the surface of the ground, as in earth-beetle, earth-bird, earth-damp, earth-fly, earth-hole.
c. Pertaining to the crust of the earth, as in earth-throe, earth-tremor.
d. Pertaining to the earth in relation to electricity, as in earth-resistance.
e. Characteristic of earth as a substance, as in earth-colour, (hence earth-coloured adj.), earth-smell, earth-tint, earth-tone; composed of earth, as in earth-bank, earth-bottom, earth-envelope, earth-mound, earth-wall.
1866Kingsley Herew. xix. 236 He went along the *earth-banks of his ancient home.
1601Holland Pliny II. 379 A kind of *earth-beetles called tauri, i. Buls.
a1225Ancr. R. 132 Þeos..beoþ *eorð briddes, & nesteð o þer eorðe.
1883F. G. Heath in Century Mag. Dec. 169/1 Over the original *earth-bottom of the cave is a bed or layer of considerable thickness.
1906Westm. Gaz. 2 June 6/2 *Earth-child, struggle no more. 1931Blunden To Themis 56 Age cannot wither you, Tiny philosopher, Earth-child, musician.
1935T. S. Eliot Murder in Cathedral i. 12 The labourer bends to his piece of earth, *earth-colour, his own colour.
1918D. H. Lawrence New Poems 50 The waste all dry..Stirring with *earth-coloured life.
1814Scott Wav. xxxvii, The light usually carried by a miner..certain to be extinguished should he encounter the more formidable hazard of *earth⁓damps or pestiferous vapours.
1884H. R. Haweis in Longm. Mag. Dec. 191 The *earth-envelope of mind is not the measure of mind.
1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope II. 176 There is a sort of Flies at the Cape which the Europeans call *Earth-flies.
1871Swinburne Poems (1904) II. 124 The *earth-god Freedom. 1904Folk-Lore Sept. 312 As an embodiment of the earth-god the king was responsible for the fruits of the earth.
1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 74 We have no acknowledged *earth-goddess in the poems.
1880A. Wallace Isl. Life 83 The opposite belief, which is now rapidly gaining ground among the students of *earth-history.
c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 139 He turnde..fro mennes wunienge to wilde deores, and ches þere crundel to halle and *eorðhole to bure.
1866G. M. Hopkins Jrnl. 6 May (1959) 135 A charming day, sky pied with clouds, near the *earth-line egg-blue. 1907Kipling Twenty Poems (1918) 2 They are concerned with matters hidden—under the earth-line their altars are.
1628Gaule Pract. The. 42 The *Earth-Lords [Adam's] honour now layd in the dust. 1944Blunden Shells by Stream 13 Something between a castle and a cave..For that earth-lord to pace.
1901‘L. Malet’ Hist. R. Calmady vi. x. 603 All this, the unity and secrecy of the place..circling them about with something of *earth-magic. 1928C. Day Lewis Country Comets 9 For his was the simpleness Born of earth-magic.
1570Billingsley Euclid xii. xviii. 389 It was nedefull for Mechanicall *earthmeasures, not to be ignorant of the measure and contents of the circle.
1875Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Immortality Wks. (Bohn) III. 280 The Pyramids..and cromlechs and *earth-mounds much older.
1850Browning Poems II. 435, I can hear it 'Twixt my spirit And the *earth⁓noise, intervene.
1847Emerson Poems (1857) 32 From the *earth-poles to the line.
1887Spectator 7 May 626/1 The *earth-powers which dwell in the billows, the rain, the frost, and the air.
1870R. Ferguson Electr. 243 The *earth resistance to the current..is next to nothing.
1895K. Grahame Golden Age 14 The air was wine, the moist *earth-smell wine. 1942T. S. Eliot Little Gidding i. 7 There is no earth smell Or smell of living thing.
1883Proctor in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 566 An extent of *earth-surface to be measured.
Ibid. Tens of thousands of human beings have..been destroyed by *earth-throes.
1951A. C. Clarke Sands of Mars ii. 15 We keep normal *Earth-time—Greenwich Meridian—aboard the [space-]ship. 1951S. Spender tr. Rilke's Life of Virgin Mary 47 Something endured Still, rest of earth-time, canker withered.
1865Daily Tel. 27 Oct. 3/1 The colour of these tiles is a deep *earth-tint.
1973T. Pynchon Gravity's Rainbow i. 149 All in some nameless *earth tone—a hedge-green, a clay-brown, a touch of oxidation, a breath of the autumnal. 1984Homes & Land in Gatorland (Fla.) 17 Apr. 3/1 (Advt.), Fieldstone complements this cheerful 3 bdr. Decorated in earthtones.
1887G. H. Darwin Earthquakes in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 274 These troublesome changes are called *earth tremors.
1884Athenæum 16 Aug. 217/3 Dr. Bruce also pointed out traces..of the vallum or *earthwall.
1953E. F. Russell Somewhere a Voice (1965) 18 It would take them most of an *Earth-year to reach the fortieth parallel.
2. objective.
a. (sense 1), as earth-tilling, earth-worker vbl. ns.; earth-baking, earth-convulsing, earth-delving, earth-incinerating, earth-piercing, earth-trading ppl. adjs.b. (senses 7, 8), as earth-measuring vbl. n.; † earths-amazing, earth-crossing, earth-destroying, earth-devouring, earth-embleming, earth-overgazing, earth-refreshing, earth-vexing ppl. adjs.c. (sense 9), as earth-poring, earth-seeking ppl. adjs.d. (sense 12), as earth-grubber, earth-maker, earth-scraper; earth-eating vbl. n. and ppl. adj.; earth-wheeling vbl. n.
1624Quarles Job (1717) 221 Jehovah did at length unshroud His *Earths-amazing language.
1847Emerson Poems (1857) 143 *Earth-baking heat.
1819Shelley Prometh. Unb. iv. (1878) II. 132 *Earth-convulsing behemoth.
1886Proctor in 19th Cent. May 692 A special *earth-crossing family of Comets.
1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 687 Where *earth-deluing Conies keepe.
a1631Drayton Wks. IV. 1540 (Jod.) This all drowning *earth-destroying shower.
c1605Montgomerie Poems 39 (Jod.) The *earth devouring anguish of despair.
1852Th. Ross tr. Humboldt's Trav. II. xxiv. 499 These examples of *earth-eating in the torrid zone appear very strange. 1869tr. Pouchet's Universe (1871) 22 There are a tolerably large number of earth-eating tribes in North America.
1839Bailey Festus x. (1848) 108 The sacrificial ox, *earth-embleming.
c1630Drummond of Hawthornden Poems Wks. (1711) 33/2 The earth and *earth-embracing sea did shake. 1870Bryant Homer I. ix. 274 They offered prayer To earth-embracing Neptune.
1883Proctor in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 566 The *earth-fashioning power of vulcanian forces.
1661K. W. Conf. Charac., Usurer (1860) 74 This miserable *earthgrubber doth..acquire this trash with vexation. 1869Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xv. 2 True believers do not..bend double as earth-grubbers.
1801Huntington Bank of Faith 34 Finding nothing could be done with the *earth-holders, I..determined to build my stories in the heaven.
1598J. Dickenson Greene in Conc. (1878) 134 *Earth-incinerating Aetnas wombe big swolne with flames.
1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. xiv. 285 Potters and *earth-makers; that is to say, people that tempered the earth for the China ware.
1570Billingsley Euclid xii. xviii. 389 Geometria, that is, *Earthmeasuring.
1816Byron Ch. Har. iii. xci, The peak Of *earth-o'ergazing mountains.
1839Bailey Festus xix. (1848) 206 The broad and upturned base Of that *earth-piercing altar pyramid.
1646G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 I. 24 High, and purged Soules Leave Time and Place, to dull *earthporing fooles.
a1631Drayton Wks. II. 4–9 (Jod.) The *earth-refreshing Sun..his golden head doth run Far under us.
1615T. Adams Spiritual Navig. 34 *Earth scrapers..that would dig to the Center to exhale riches.
1646G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 I. 13 A low bruit Affection..which binds In Sensuall Fetters, lowe *Earth-seeking minds.
1875E. White Life in Christ i. i. (1878) 3 Wearing so many crowns, as *Earth-subduer, Legislator.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 31 Þis kyng [Azarias] louede wel *erþe telynge. 1382Wyclif 1 Cor. iii. 9 Ȝe ben the erthe tilyinge of God.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. i. ii. 25 *Earthtreading starres, that make darke heauen light.
1611― Cymb. v. iv. 42 This *earth-vexing smart.
1477in York Myst. Introd. 21 note, Garthyners, *erthe wallers, pavers, dykers.
1885Sir R. Rawlinson in Pall Mall G. 17 Jan. 1/2 Stockport, where men had been set to test work at *earth-wheeling.
1872H. Macmillan True Vine ii. 57 ‘*Earth-worker,’ as the original word for husbandman should be rendered.
3. instrumental with passive pple., as earth-blinded, earth-dimmed, earth-fed, earth-rampired, earth-stained, earth-worn.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. viii, Thou the *Earth-blinded summonest both Past and Future.
1884W. G. Horder in Chr. World Pulpit 12 Nov. 310/3 Our *earth⁓dimmed souls.
1605B. Jonson Volpone iii. vii, *Earth-fed Minds That never tasted the true Heav'n of love.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cli, *Earth-rampeir'd Ears, expect the Drum to Call.
1827Keble Chr. Y. 24th Sund. after Trin., The *earth-stained spright Whose wakeful musings are of guilt and fear.
1866E. Peacock Eng. Ch. Furniture 177 The *earth-worn face of the living.
4. adverbial with adjs. or vbl. ns. Chiefly locative and originative (in, on, near to the earth; from, of the earth), and similative (as the earth); as in earth-bedded, earth-bound (also transf. and fig., and indicating motion towards the earth), earth-bowed, earth-bred, earth-burrower, earth-coloured, earth-creeping, earth-ejected, earth-gaping, earth-grovelling, earth-lent, earth-long, earth-low, earth-made, earth-nurtured, earth-proud, earth-rooted, earth-sprung, earth-turned, earth-undone, earth-wide.
1813Scott Rokeby ii. xv, Yon *earth-bedded jetting-stone.
1605Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 96 Who can..bid the Tree Vnfixe his *earth-bound Root? 1869W. James Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 1, The ‘Sadducees’, as our author [sc. a spiritualist] loves to call the earth-bound portion of the community. 1931C. Day Lewis From Feathers to Iron xv. 31 Earth's first faint tug at the earthbound soul. 1935Discovery Feb. 43/1 To an earth-bound rocket pressure is more important than velocity. 1950S. Spender Sel. Poems Whitman 11 With all his loftiness and idealism, he is peculiarly earth-bound.
1865G. Smith Autumn iv. in Macm. Mag. XIII. 54 *Earth-bow'd trees.
1594? Greene Selimus Wks. 1881–3 XIV. 285 *Earth-bred brethren, which once Heapte hill on hill to scale the starrie skie. 1603H. Crosse Vertues Commw. (1878) 90 Earth-bred wormes,..will stand vpon termes of gentilitie. 1622May Heir in Hazl. Dodsley II. 517 The earth-bred thoughts of his gross soul.
1883Wood in Longm. Mag. Dec. 162 The mole is an *earth-burrower.
1877Daily News 1 Nov. 5/7 We reached Biela at dark, *earth-coloured, wet and out of spirits.
1581Sidney Apol. Poesie (1622) 530 So *earth-creeping a mind, that it cannot lift itself vp to looke to the skies of Poetry. 1819Shelley Prometh. Unb. ii. ii, The earth-creeping breeze.
1886Proctor in 19th Cent. May 694 The orbit..had been that of the *earth-ejected comet.
1596C. Fitzgeffrey Sir F. Drake (1881) 31 *Earth-gaping Chasma's, that mishap aboades.
1642H. More Song of Soul i. iii. xxxviii, This Province..is hight *earth-grovelling Aptery.
1839Bailey Festus vi. (1848) 61 With every *earthlent ray of every star Holy and special influences are.
1903W. S. Blunt 7 Golden Odes 15 Herds knelt, their necks stretched *earth-long. 1935C. Day Lewis Time to Dance 55 Earth-long and heaven-outfacing woes.
1600Tourneur Transf. Met. cclxxxii, With fleecy Wooll, that hung on *earth-low brakes.
1849Hare Par. Serm. II. 416 Everything *earth-made has a weight in it which drags it down to earth.
1881H. Phillips tr. Chamisso's Faust 15 Woe and wail! earth-born, *earth-nurtured!
1868Hawthorne Amer. Note-bks. (1879) I. 218 Weary *earth-plodders.
1847Emerson Poems (1857) 70 *Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs.
1871G. Macdonald Songs of Days & Nts. 51 The long grass..an *earth-rooted sea.
1614R. Taylor Hog lost Pearl in Dodsley (1780) VI. 412 Tortur'd by the weak assailments Of *earth-sprung griefs. a1849J. C. Mangan Poems (1850) 74 Earthsprung mothers, of an earthly name, Doomed to die.
1618R. Brathwait Descr. Death, *Earth-turned, mole-eied, flesh-hook, that puls us hence.
1850Mrs. Browning Poems I. 313 As one God-satisfied and *earth-undone.
1864R. S. Hawker Quest. Sangraal 4 The *Earthwide Judge, Pilate the Roman.
II. Special comb.: earth-almond = chufa; earth-bags = sand-bags (Adm. Smyth); see earth-sack; earth-balls, truffles, Tuber cibarium (Britten and Holland); † earth-bath, a kind of medical treatment in which the patient was buried up to the shoulders in the ground; earth-battery (Electr.), a battery formed by burying two voltaic elements in the earth some distance apart; earth-bed, a bed upon the ground; the grave; † earth-bind, some creeping plant; earth-bob, a maggot, the larva of a beetle; † earth-coal, coal as distinguished from charcoal; earth-car (see quot.); earth-chestnut = earth-nut; † earth-chine, a cleft in the earth; earth-closet, a substitute for a water-closet, in which earth is used as a deodorising agent; earth colour, pigment, a pigment obtained from native earth, as the ochres and umbers; so earth white; earth-current (Electr.), an irregular current due to the earth, which affects telegraph wires so as to render them temporarily useless for communication; † earth-dog, a terrier; earth-drake, mod. rendering of OE. eorð-draca earth-dragon; † earth-flax, some mineral, possibly asbestos; earth-flea, earth-fly, = chigoe; earth-foam, a variety of Aphrite; earth-fork, a digging fork; earth-gall, the Lesser Centaury, Erythræa Centaurium; earth-hog = aard-vark; earth-house, an underground chamber or dwelling; fig. the grave; earth-hunger, a disease characterized by a morbid craving for eating earth; fig. desire to possess land, greed of territory; † earth-ivy = ground-ivy; † earth-lice, transl. L. pedunculi terræ (see quot.); earth-life, terrestrial existence; earth-man, (a) a human being (or occas. a mythical creature) whose life and instincts are closely allied with the natural or material (as opposed to the spiritual) world; (b) esp. in science fiction, an inhabitant or native of the planet Earth; also earthsman, earth-woman; earth-marl, marl containing a large proportion of clay; earth-moss, the genus Phascum (Britten and Holland); Earth-Mother [tr. G. erdmutter], in mythology and folklore, a spirit or being taken as a symbol of the earth; a sensual and maternal woman; also = mother earth 1; earth-mouse, the plant Lathyrus tuberosus (Britten and Holland); earth-mover orig. U.S., a vehicle or machine designed for the excavation or shifting of large quantities of earth; so earth-moving ppl. a.; earth-moving vbl. n., (a) = earthquake; (b) the process of moving large quantities of earth during excavation, etc.; earth-oil, petroleum; earth-pig, transl. Du. aardvarken = aard-vark; earth-pillar (Geol.), a pillar-like mass of earth (see quot.); † earth-planet, nonce-wd., a fugitive, wanderer; earth-plate (Electr.), a metal plate buried in the earth, connected with a telegraph battery in order that the circuit may be completed by the earth; † earth-puff, a puff-ball fungus (Nares); earth-return, (a) Electr., an earthed return circuit, as distinguished from a metallic return; also attrib.; (b) attrib., returning to the planet Earth; † earth-ric (Orm. eorþeriche), the earth-realm, earth as a region; earth-rind, rhetorically used for ‘crust of the earth’; also fig.; earth-sack, a sack filled with earth, used as a fascine in fortifications; earth satellite, an artificial satellite projected into orbit around the earth; also attrib.; earth-sculpture, the physical processes by which the form of the earth's surface is altered; earth-shaker, also earth-shaking ppl. a., chiefly used as epithets of Poseidon or Neptune; ppl. a., also fig.; earth-shaking vbl. n., formerly = earthquake; earth-shine (Astron.) = earth-light; earth-shock, a convulsion of the earth; † an earthquake; † earth-shrew, the Shrew-mouse; earth-side, nonce-wd., earthward side or aspect; also attrib. or as adj., and used adverbially; earth-smoke, the plant Fumitory (Britten and Holland); earth-soul, (a) Philos., the supposed collective consciousness of the earth, including as its parts the consciousnesses of all earth's inhabitants (cf. anima mundi); (b) the soul of a former earth-dweller; earth-spider, the Tarantula; earth-spring, in electrical machines a spring connected with the earth; earth-star, a fungus so called from its stellate shape when lying on the ground; also as nonce-wd., applied to the earth considered as a ‘star’, and to luminous objects resembling stars; earth-stopper, one who is employed to stop up the ‘earths’ or holes of foxes; earth-table (Arch.), see quot.; earth-tongue (Bot.), Eng. rendering of the name of the genus Geoglossum (Treas. Bot.); earth-wave, a seismic wave in the solid crust of the earth; earth-wax = ozocerite; earth-wire Electr., wire carried from a conductor into the earth, esp. to prevent contact from the leakage of current from one wire into another; hence earth-wire v., -wired ppl. a., -wiring vbl. n.; earth-wolf, transl. Du. aardwolf, q.v.; earth-woman (see earth-man above). Also earth-apple, -board, -born, -din, -fast, -less, -light, -mad, -wise, -work, -worm.
1856Rep. Comm. Pat.: Agric. 1855 (U.S.) p. xiii, The *Earth Almond, or Chufa, (Cyperus esculentus), a small tuberous esculent, from the south of Spain, has naturalised itself to our climate and soil. 1860Earth-almond [see chufa].
1765Nat. Hist. in Ann. Reg. 108/2 The *Earth-bath..may be used with safety only from the end..of May to..October.
a1300Cursor M. 6962 Ioseph bans þai wit ham ledd, þar þai þam grof in *erth bedd. 1637Nabbes Microcosm. in Dodsley IX. 163 My earth-bed wet with nightly tears. 1877Browning La Saisiaz 118 Of all earth-beds, to your mind Most the choice for quiet, yonder.
1579Langham Gard. Health (1633) 205 Headache of rheume, put in the iuyce of white *Earthbinde into the nose.
1740R. Brookes Art of Angling i. iii. 13 The *Earth-Bob or White-Grub is a Worm with a red Head. 1787Best Angling (ed. 2) 57 The best bait for them in the winter is, the earth bob, it is the spawn of the beetle.
1874Knight Dict. Mech., *Earth-car = dumping-car, a car for transporting gravel and stone in railway operations.
c1220Bestiary 402 [A fox] goð o felde to a furg, and falleð ðarinne, In eried lond er in *erð-chine.
1870Eng. Mech. 18 Mar. 661/3 He had converted a privy into an *earth-closet. 1871G. H. Napheys Prev. & Cure Dis. i. viii. 233 The dry earth-closet is especially valuable.
1807Southey Espriella's Lett. (1814) I. 12 They burn *earth⁓coal everywhere.
1913N. Heaton Hurst's Man. Painters' Colours (ed. 5) v. 155 Iron oxide is also the colouring principle of the group of pigments known as ‘*earth colours’. 1951Oxf. Jun. Encycl. VII. 325/1 Examples of such earth colours are yellow ochre, siennas (dark yellows), and umbers (browns).
1872Phil. Mag. XLIII. 186 It is almost impossible to have two earth-plates inserted any distance apart without a difference of tension,..This is due in some cases to *earth-currents. 1879Thomson & Tait Nat. Phil. I. i. §376 An unknown and every varying electromotive force..due to the earth (producing what is commonly called the ‘earth-current’).
1616Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 699 The hunting of the Foxe and Broke..is to bee performed with *earth-dogs.
a1000Beowulf (Gr.) 2711 Sio wund..þe him se *eorð-draca ær ᵹeworhte. 18..W. Spalding. in Ogilvie, s.v. Earth-drake.
1695Woodward (J.) Of English talc, the coarser sort is called plaister, or parget; the finer, *earth flax, or salamander's hair.
1872Watts Dict. Chem. I. 349 A soft friable variety of it [aphrite] called *earth⁓foam.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 186 Centaurian sume hatað hyrde wyrt sume *eorð ᵹeallan. 1611Cotgr., Repeyret, Feuerwort, Earthgall, Centorie the lesse. 1884Miller Plant Names 40 Earth-gall, Erythræa Centaurium and other plants of the Gentian tribe.
1731Medley Kolben's Cape G. Hope II. 118 The *Earth-hogs..are not unlike the European hogs, excepting that their colour approaches to a red.
c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 146 Romane him..worhton *eorþ hus for þære lyfte wilme. c1205Lay. 2381 Seouen ȝer wes Astrild i þissen eorð huse [1250 erþ huse]. a1856Longfellow Grave 28 Loathsome is that earth-house and grim within to dwell.
1856Emerson Eng. Traits vii. Truth Wks. (Bohn) II. 53 The *earth-hunger, or preference for property in land, which is said to mark the Teutonic nations. 1884Graphic 4 Oct. 342/2 The Boers..whose earth hunger is notorious, will gradually ‘eat-up’ all the surrounding territories.
c1050Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 299 Hedera nigra, *eorðifiᵹ. c1265Voc. Plant-names in Wr.-Wülcker 558 Hedera nigra, oerþiui. 1561Hollybush Hom. Apoth. 37 a, Take the lesse Shaving girss..and Earth yvy, of eche two handfull.
1601Holland Pliny II. 379 Some tearme them, Pedunculos terræ, *earth-lice.
1906W. De Morgan Joseph Vance xix. 191 The black Shadow that oppressed me was bidden to..scatter itself over the remainder of my *earth-life. 1906Daily Chron. 28 May 3/4 One brief day—as long as seven years of this earth-life. 1922O. Lodge Raymond Revised 47 Humour does not cease with earth-life. 1958New Statesman 15 Mar. 353/2 The spy from Outer Space..will be happy to discover..an authentic smell, that is, of mid-century earth-life in general.
1860H. B. Tristram Great Sahara i. 18 A negro from Timbuctoo engaged to remove the plague, and taught sacrifices to the ‘*Earth⁓men’, or demons who roam the earth. These are believed to be harmless when once they have obtained a human residence. 1904G. K. Chesterton G. F. Watts 126 He would see giants and the sea..and brown earth⁓men and red earth-women lying in the heaps of greens and browns and reds. 1905Daily Chron. 16 Mar. 8/2 The sensual earth-man must be killed, beyond all chances of reviving, before the man after the divine pattern and will can live. 1930A. H. Krappe Sci. Folk-Lore i. 20 In at least one type [of fairy tale], the story of the Earthman, the helper, a dwarf, sometimes a witch, has to be overcome by the hero first. 1936C. S. Lewis Alleg. Love vii. 312 Mammon is the gold-hoarding earthman of immemorial tradition, the gnome. 1947W. K. Richmond Poetry & People i. 14 At heart we are still Saxons, and deeper still we are countryfolk, peasants, earth-men. 1949R. Heinlein Red Planet (1963) i. 3 The Mars creature saw an elderly pale Earthman. 1960Guardian 26 Aug. 2/7 If their site did indeed become the set of the space film, the corps members would not be suitable for the parts of earth-men.
1770–4A. Hunter Georg. Ess. (1803) I. 226 note, A very considerable number of *earth⁓marls are of a stony hardness. 1831Brit. Husb. I. 311 The origin of earth-marl is a subject of curious inquiry.
1904Edin. Rev. Jan. 38 The Indian women disraimented still enact the ancient ritual of the Rain-Goddess or *Earth-Mother. 1906Inst. Mag. Apr. 312 When the great, good Earth-Mother saw this, she called to April and sent her back to gain a victory over her malicious enemy. 1907Academy 31 Aug. 837/1 Soft to his neck earth-mother clings. 1961S. Lloyd Art Anc. Near East iii. 82 His symbolic marriage with Inanna, the ‘earth-mother’. 1962John o'London's 31 May 529/2 An earth-mother barmaid.
1859All Y. Round No. 32. 126 The *earth-mouse (Lathyrus tuberosus), which the French peasant will not cultivate because, he says, it walks underground.
1382Wyclif Matt. xxiv. 7 *Erthemouyngis schulen be by placis. 1939Civil Engineering XXXIV. 228 (title) The development of earth moving equipment for highway construction. 1941Agricultural Engineering XXII. 19/1 Earth moving makes up the principal portion of construction work. Ibid. 24/1 Profit by experience of earth movers. 1959B.S.I. News June 10/2 Giant earth⁓mover tyres. 1963Times 24 Jan. 11/7 The earthmover, the caterpillar tractor. 1968Daily Tel. 1 Nov. 19/4 Three or four heavy earth-moving vehicles started levelling the adjacent land.
1755Baker in Dalrymple Or. Rep. I. 172 (Y.) About 200 Families..employed in getting *Earth-oil out of Pitts.
1785G. Forster tr. Sparrman's Voy. Cape Gd. Hope I. 270 The aard-varken, or *earth-pig, which, probably, is a species of manis. 1962M. Burton Syst. Dict. Mammals 195 (heading) Aardvark, earth-pig, ant-bear (Orycteropus afer).
1923L. C. Martin Colour & Methods of Colour Reprod. vi. 73 Generally speaking, the ‘*earth pigments’ are the most stable and satisfactory.
1870Lyell Student's Geol. vi. (ed. 4) 82 *Earth-pillars with stones on their tops are relics of the country worn away all around them.
1591Florio 2nd Fruites 141 Children, whores, and fugitiues..A man must not beleeue these runagate *earth⁓planets.
1847Brett & Little Compendium Improvements Electric Telegraphs 22 An *earth plate..which carries the current back by the conducting powers of the earth. 1872Earth-plate [see earth-current].
1585J. Higins tr. Junius Nomenclator (N.) Mushrooms, tadstooles, earthturfes, *earthpuffes.
1871Eng. Mech. 8 Sept. 627/1 *Earth return currents are not practical. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 227/2 Steinheil of Munich..discovered the use of the earth return. 1940Chambers's Techn. Dict. 277/2 Earth return circuit, a telegraphic current using one transmission wire, the return current passing through the earth and thereby encountering a low resistance. 1962F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics v. 191 Later, when Earth-return vehicles become feasible, samples can be brought back. 1968Times 23 Dec. 6/4 There is no reason in logic why it should not..eject them into an earth-return orbit.
c1200Ormin 12132 Nan eorþliȝ kinedom Here upponn *eorþeriche.
1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. iv. 8 On what a bottomless volcano..separated from us by a thin *earth-rind, Society..in the present epoch, rests! 1871Hartwig Subterr. W. i. 5 The history of the earth-rind opens to us a vista into time.
1708Lond. Gaz. No. 4471/2 We began..to fill the Fosse..with Fascines and *Earth-Sacks.
1949Rocket Jet Flying Spring 6 The ‘*earth satellite vehicle program’..is the most imagination-firing news we've heard in quite a while. 1950Jrnl. Brit. Interplanetary Soc. IX. 155 As performances improve, so we may expect to see the appearance of the close-orbit Earth satellite vehicle. 1956Collier's Year-Bk. 48/2 Plans to launch an earth satellite were announced in the middle of 1955. 1959Davies & Palmer Radio Studies of Universe x. 180 A most spectacular and ambitious project..has been the launching of earth satellites by Russia and the U.S.A.
1883Mrs. Prestwich in Gd. Words 643/2 Glaciers and other agents of *earth-sculpture.
1647R. Stapylton Juvenal 184 Th' *earth-shaker Neptune. 1846Grote Greece (1869) I. 55 The mighty Poseidon, the earth-shaker and the ruler of the sea.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) V. 299 Mammertus..ordeyned Rogaciouns aȝenst *erþe schakynge. Ibid. vii. xv. (1527) 280 b, In ytalye was an erth-sakynge that dured xl dayes. 1634Milton Comus 869 By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace. 1807J. Barlow Columbiad iv. 10 p. 135 Earth-shaking storms and constellated skies. 1875Longfellow Masq. Pandora iii. sp. 8 The earth-shaking trident of Poseidon. 1948E. Sitwell Notebk. on Shakes. viii. 104 With the exception of two earth-shaking sentences, and one speech of great beauty..Iago never speaks ‘above a mortal mouth’. 1966Ogilvy & Anderson Excurs. Number Theory xi. 144 Besides, what if a study is not of earth-shaking importance?
1834Nat. Philos. (U.K.S.) III. Astron. iii. 77/2 That part of the moon which receives no light directly from the sun, may, by indirectly receiving it from the earth, become..faintly visible. The appearance..has received the name of *earth-shine. 1876G. Chambers Astron. 87 The Earth-shine is more luminous before the New Moon than after it. 1946Nature 21 Dec. 907/1 The portion of the moon's surface that is lighted up by earthshine. 1963Daily Tel. 20 May 26 (heading) Space man slept well... Kept out ‘earthshine’.
c1315Shoreham 124 Altha was an *erthe-schoke. 1816Byron Siege Cor. xxxiii, All the living things that heard That deadly earth⁓shock disappear'd.
1693in Phil. Trans. XVII. 851 The Shrew-mouse or Erd, i.e. *Earth-shrew.
1858Sears Athan. ii. ix. 226 On this dark or *earth-side of his [Christ's] nature. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. xiv, The earth-side of the grave. 1949R. Heinlein Red Planet (1963) iv. 53 Many's the time he's told me stories about the school he went to back Earth⁓side. 1956Galaxy Sci. Fiction XLIII. 11/2 Some Earth⁓side official of the Interstellar Prison Service.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick 79 It smells like another world, more strangely than the moon would to an *Earthsman.
1871Swinburne Songs bef. Sunrise 149 The *earth-soul Freedom, that only Lives, and that only is God. 1905W. James Ess. Rad. Emp. (1912) iv. 136 Speculations like Fechner's, of an Earth-soul, of wider spans of consciousness enveloping narrower ones throughout the cosmos, are..philosophically quite in order. 1948C. Day Lewis Poems 1943–47 64 You might well surmise They are earth-souls.
1883Chamb. Jrnl. 1 Dec. 760/2 A common *earth⁓spider, the tarantula.
1881Maxwell Electr. & Magn. I. 299 When P moves away from the *earth-spring it carries this charge with it.
1816Byron Siege Cor. v, Its *earth-stars melted into heaven. 1839Bailey Festus xxviii. (1848) 335 Is the earth-star struggling still with death? 1885W. H. Gibson in Harper's Mag. May 912/1 The fungus called the earth-star, Geaster hygrometricus, a plant of the puff-ball tribe.
1880Times 2 Nov. 4/5 There are huntsmen, whips, and grooms, kennel attendants, smiths, and *earth⁓stoppers to be employed.
1875Gwilt Archit. Gloss., *Earth Table..the plinth of a wall..or lowest course of projecting stones immediately above the ground.
1869Phillips Vesuv. ix. 261 Heat in some way generates the force of the *earth-wave. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 188 [In earthquakes] near the sea the water waves may be far more destructive than the earth waves.
1884*Earth-wax [see ozocerite]. 1958W. T. O'Dea Social Hist. Lighting 216 Ozokerit, or ‘earth⁓wax’, found in the region of the Roumanian oil wells, later proved..superior, at a price, to paraffin wax candles.
1908F. Maire Mod. Pigments iv. 40 *Earth whites are so named to distinguish that class of pigments which owe their origin to mother earth in contradistinction to those which are derived from a metallic origin.
1868E. Atkinson tr. Ganot's Physics (ed. 3) 650 Into the other hole of the fuse a wire is placed which serves as *earth wire. 1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 258 It is always advisable to earth-wire at least the last five supports on each side of every office, as a protection against the effects of lightning. 1911Encycl. Brit. XXVI. 512/1 For protection from lightning each pole has an ‘earth wire’ running from the top, down to the base. 1966Earth wire [see earth v. 8].
1876Preece & Sivewright Telegraphy 215 *Earth-wiring... The object of the earth-wires is to prevent contact from arising through the leakage of currents from one wire at its point of support into another. Ibid. 216 In dry sandy soil or in rock the earth-wiring is therefore to be avoided.
1904*Earth-woman [see earth-man]. 1955‘J. Wyndham’ in ‘E. Crispin’ Best S.F. 72 He greeted Lellie [sc. a Martian] just as if she were an Earth woman.
Add:[A.] [I.] [2.] b. In fig. phrases to feel the earth move and varr., expressing a sensation of (esp. sexual) ecstasy. colloq.
1940E. Hemingway For whom Bell Tolls xiii. 160 ‘Did thee feel the earth move?’ ‘Yes. As I died. Put thy arm around me, please.’ 1975‘D. Jordan’ Black Account xxxi. 158 Guy stared at her and I fancy it was at that moment that the earth began to move under him. 1986Times 25 June 19/5 When she..tears into ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ you can feel the earth shifting under your feet. 1987‘M. Yorke’ Evidence to Destroy x. 97, I was in bed with your daughter, trying to make the earth move for her.
[B.] [II.] earth station, a radio station located on the earth and used for relaying signals from satellites.
1962N.Y. Times 11 July 16/5 The American Telephone and Telegraph Company, which built the installation, calls it ‘*Earth Station for Communicating by Satellite’. 1984Broadcast 7 Dec. 12/1 (Advt.), The Bright Star transatlantic satellite path is the only two-way link capable of connecting to any North American earth station.
▸ Imitative of a ground controller attempting to contact a spacecraft. humorous. Earth to (also calling)—— and variants: implying the person addressed is speaking or behaving in an abstracted manner, or is out of touch with reality.
1979Campus Slang Mar. 3 Earth to——. Please pay attention. 1983Atlantic (Nexis) May 91 Oh, Jeez, there she goes. Planet Earth calling Grace Poole! 1989J. Churchill Grime & Punishment (1992) ix. 75 Earth calling Jane? Are you there? 1993Independent 22 Aug. (Electronic ed.) 18 It's true his speech is urgent enough to prompt the ‘Planet Earth to Keanu’ tone of most published interviews with him. 2003Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 21 Mar. ii. 5/2 Their big conflict is she may have to move to New York. Earth to Donna, you're a flight attendant. You can visit, you know, although the thought apparently doesn't come to mind.
▸ Earth Charter n. a document which (although not legally enforceable) details action and principles for environmental protection and sustainable development agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, June 1992 (also called Rio Declaration; cf. Agenda 21 n. at agenda n. Additions); (also) any similar document containing recommendations for environmental protection.
1990UN Chron. Dec. 63 Maurice Strong..proposed that the world meeting agree on an *Earth Charter and a ‘prioritized agenda’ to be known as Agenda 21 to implement it. 1994Marine Policy 18 103/2 The Earth Council has the following elements:..Earth Charter. A statement of values for wide general acceptance will be articulated and promoted, building on the range of existing charters and declarations. 2001N.Y. Times (National ed.) 2 Sept. i. 24/4 Multinational efforts like Earth Charter, which push nations and corporations to embrace a sense of ethical responsibility to the earth.
▪ II. † earth, n.2 Obs. or dial.
Forms: 1 ierþ, irþ, yrþ, earþ, ærþ, 4–5 erþe, 6 earthe, 6– earth.
[OE. *ęrþ, WS. ięrþ str. fem. (OTeut. type *arþi-z) f. *ar-, root of OE. ęrian, ear v.1 to plough + suffix as in birth.]
1. The action of ploughing; a ploughing. In OE. also ‘ploughed land’ and ‘produce of arable land, a crop’ (Bosw.-Toller).
c890K. ælfred Bæda iv. xxviii. (Bosw.) Ða ᵹeorn ðær sona up ᵹenihtsumlic yrþ and wæstm. a1000Rect. Sing. Pers. in Thorpe Laws (1840) 189 Feola syndan folcᵹerihtu..ben-feorm for ripe, ᵹyt-feorm for yrðe. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xviii (MS.) Þe more gardyne was of twenty days erþe oþer erynge [1495 erthe ar eryenge]. 1552Huloet, Earth or earynge of Lande in some place taken for tyllage of lande, as the first earth..first plowynge styrringe. 1573Tusser Husb xxxv. (1878) 84 Such lande as ye breake vp for barlie to sowe, two earthes at the least er ye sowe it bestowe. a1813Vancouver in A. Young Agric. Essex I. 203 One or two deep clean ploughings is all that can..be required..and one or both of these earths, under certain circumstances, had better be dispensed with.
2. The soil turned up by the plough on the edge of the furrow.
1765A. Dickson Treat. Agric. 275 If the earths of the furrows are set on their edge, the harrows turn them back.
▪ III. earth, v.|ɜːθ|
Forms: α. Sc. and north. dial. 4–6 erde, 6 eird, 9 eard, yird. β. 6– earth.
[f. earth n.1; until 16th c. app. only Sc.]
†1. trans. To commit (a corpse) to the earth; to bury. (In Sc. formerly the usual word for this sense; in Eng. writers only poet. or rhet., with a reference to the etymology.) Now only dial.
1375Barbour Bruce xiii. 666 And the laiff..In-to gret pittes erdit war. c1425Wyntoun Cron. ix. xii. 7 Robert oure secound Kyng..Wes erdyde in Skone, quhare he lyes. 1513Douglas æneis v. ii. 12 The reliquies and bonis in feir Of my divyne fadir we erdit heir. 1557Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 142 Though earthed be his corps, yet florish shall his fame. 1591Greene Maiden's Dr. Wks. (1881–3) XIV. 316 His liuelesse bodie..Let that be earthed..in gorgeous wise. 1626Dk. Buckhm. Sp. Ho. Lords in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 377 If my Posterity should not inherit the same fidelity, I should..be glad to see them earthed before me. 1742R. Blair Grave 169 Why thy ado in earthing up a carcase? 1808Poet. Register 73 We'll earth her tomorrow, 'Tis the only wise method to bury one's sorrow. 1832–53Whistle-Binkie (Sc. Songs) Ser. ii. 100 But Lauchie did dee, and was welcomely yirdet. 1875Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.) Earded, consigned to the earth; buried.
2. To plunge or hide in the earth; to cover with earth. Also intr. (for refl.) Only poet. or rhetorical. Also fig.
1648Bp. Hall Select Th. §25 Let a man strictly examine his own affections, he shall find them so deeply earthed. 1652Benlowes Theoph. xi. xliii, Seeds thrive When earth't. 1742Young Nt. Th. ix. 948 The miser earths his treasure. 1839Bailey Festus (1848) 16 Could I, like Heaven's bolt, earthing quench myself, This moment would I, etc.
3. Gardening. To heap the earth over (roots and stems of plants). Usually with up.
1693Sir R. Bulkeley, Maize, in Phil. Trans. XVII. 939 It must be earth'd up with the Howe twice or thrice in growing. 1719London & Wise Compl. Gard. 299 In dry Soils, you must Earth up a little our Artichoaks. 1796C. Marshall Garden. xv. (1813) 231 Earth up the plants frequently..a little at a time, in order to blanch them. 1881Whitehead Hops 8 The plant centres being ‘earthed’ or covered over with a few shovels of earth.
4. a. trans. To conceal in a hole or burrow.
1619J. King Serm. 40 Beasts..earthed in their thickets and bogges. a1635Corbet Iter Bor. 127 The cunning men, like moles, Dwelt not in howses, but were earth't in holes.
b. refl. (In 17th c. often transf. and fig.)
1609Bp. Barlow Answ. Nameless Cath. 335 This wily Creature, fearing lest hee should bee taken by the..sent, hath earth'd himselfe backe againe into the 92 page. 1656Artif. Handsomeness 137 He then retreats to this [stronghold] of Scandal, and earths himself in this burrough. 1719D'Urfey Pills IV. 56 He Earths himself in Cellars deep.
c. intr. for refl. of the fox, etc.: To run to his earth; to hide in the earth.
1622Fletcher Span. Curate ii. i, They wil not die here, They will not Earth. 1634Heywood Witches of Lanc. i. i. Wks. 1874 IV. 172 Perhaps some Foxe had earth'd there. 1713Guardian No. 125 (1756) II. 163 Hence foxes earth'd, and wolves abhorr'd the day. c1820S Rogers Italy (1852) 188 Once again he earths, Slipping away to house with them beneath. 1882Echo 20 Feb. 4/2 The vulp earthed at last, and had to be left for another day.
5. trans. To drive (a fox, etc.) to his earth. Also fig.
1575Turberv. Bk. Venerie 239 We earth and digge a Badgerd. 1719D'Urfey Pills II. 270 The vixen's just now Earth'd. 1742Young Nt. Th. iv. 96 The circling hunt, of noisy men..Pursuing, and pursu'd, each other's prey..Till death, that mighty hunter, earths them all. 1827Blackw. Mag. XXI. 272 The consciousness of having now fairly..earthed the objects of this arduous search.
6. intr. (See quot.) dial.
1875Parish Sussex Gloss., Earth, to turn up the ground as a mole does.
7. In Sugar-making. See quot., and cf. clayed.
1727–52Chambers Cycl. II. s.v. Sugar, Earthed Sugar is that which is whitened by means of earth laid on the top of the forms it is put in to purge itself.
8. Electr. To connect (a conductor) with the earth.
1885Jrnl. Soc. Telegraph Engineers XIV. 454, I have myself seen a circuit ‘earthed’ at an intermediate station in the middle of a message. 1888Science 13 July 18/1 In dry weather they [sc. conductors] are not earthed at all well. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXV. 773/1 Let a conductor—say, a metallic sphere—be supported by a metal rod of negligible capacity whose other end is earthed. 1966Buying Secondhand (Consumers' Assoc.) 72 If the appliance is intended to be earthed, make sure there is an earth wire fitted.
Hence earthed ppl. a. and ˈearthing vbl. n. (also attrib.).
1727–52[see sense 7 above]. 1889Daily News 25 Dec. 6/7 A piece of mechanism known as an ‘earthing device’, the invention of Major Cardew, which infallibly cuts off the current if a condition of danger occurs. 1898Ibid. 3 May 5/3 The swaying to and fro of the earthed line in the field due to terrestrial magnetism. 1906A. F. Collins Man. Wireless Telegr. 212 Earthed terminal. The wire connecting the plate buried in the earth and the aerial wire. 1909Install. News III. 80/1 Mr. Leckie recommended earthing through a resistance. 1966Buying Secondhand (Consumers' Assoc.) 72 With earthed appliances the continuity of the earth wire ought to be checked. |