1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,480 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff 2 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: Laura Vogelbaum. Here, the planets of our Solar system are bright, 3 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:16,239 Speaker 1: mobile points of light in our night sky, and we 4 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,200 Speaker 1: humans have thus been fascinated by them for thousands of years. 5 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: Ancient peoples all over the world noticed that these objects 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: shine like stars, but move differently, seemingly wandering through different constellations. 7 00:00:31,080 --> 00:00:33,800 Speaker 1: But we now know that this isn't really mysterious. It's 8 00:00:33,840 --> 00:00:36,519 Speaker 1: because the planets are in orbit around our Sun and 9 00:00:36,800 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: real stars aren't. Still, our word planet comes from an 10 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:48,400 Speaker 1: ancient Greek term meaning wanderer. Ancient Greeks named the five 11 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:50,960 Speaker 1: brightest planets those that can be seen with the naked 12 00:00:50,960 --> 00:00:55,440 Speaker 1: eye for their dominant attributes. They then assigned each one 13 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: as being sacred to or part of the domain of 14 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: a coordinating god of their pantheon. A side note, the 15 00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: Greeks possibly borrowed this from Babylonian associations with the planets, 16 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 1: but it's complicated at any rate. That is how a 17 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: large bright planet was connected with Zeus, the king of 18 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: the gods. The brightest was given to Aphrodite, a goddess 19 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: of love and beauty. The red one to Ares, the 20 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 1: god of war, and the fastest to Hermes, the fleet 21 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,760 Speaker 1: footed messenger of the gods. The slowest moving planet seen, 22 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,800 Speaker 1: perhaps as Stately, was associated with Chronos, a father of Zeus. 23 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: The ancient Romans borrowed a lot from the Greeks, including 24 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: their mythology and the association of the planets with certain gods, 25 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 1: though the Romans sort of skipped the middleman and named 26 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:46,320 Speaker 1: those planets directly for the Roman versions of those gods, 27 00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: and because the Romans language Blatin was the lingua franca 28 00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,680 Speaker 1: of European science long after the fall of the Empire, 29 00:01:54,200 --> 00:01:57,880 Speaker 1: those names stuck in most European languages, with the few 30 00:01:57,960 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 1: variations on spelling and pronunciation, which is how we arrived 31 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 1: in English at kingly Jupiter, bright, Venus, red Mars, quick Mercury, 32 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:15,400 Speaker 1: and stately Saturn. A scientist's discovered telescopes throughout these sixteen 33 00:02:15,400 --> 00:02:19,480 Speaker 1: and seventeen hundreds, leading to the discovery of two new planets. 34 00:02:19,960 --> 00:02:23,480 Speaker 1: After some argument, astronomers agreed to roll with the ancient 35 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: naming convention, thus giving us Uranus, which is a Latinized 36 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: version of the Greek god of the sky, and Neptune 37 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: with its blue tint named for the Roman god of 38 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: the sea, and whether you consider Pluto a true planet 39 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,080 Speaker 1: or not, you can see our episode about that for more. 40 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: It was named for the Roman god of the underworld, 41 00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:47,440 Speaker 1: given its existence out in the cold, dark reaches of 42 00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:51,919 Speaker 1: the Solar System. The name was suggested in nineteen thirty 43 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,520 Speaker 1: by an English schoolgirl of Venetia, Bernie. Urban legends say 44 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:59,000 Speaker 1: that she named the planet after the dog Pluto from 45 00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:02,040 Speaker 1: Walt Disney's Making Mount cartoons, but it seems to be 46 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,120 Speaker 1: the other way around. A Disney's cartoon Pooch went by 47 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,359 Speaker 1: Rover until nineteen thirty one, when his name was switched 48 00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:13,280 Speaker 1: to Pluto. All of this means that of the planets 49 00:03:13,280 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 1: in our Solar System, Earth is the only one in 50 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:20,720 Speaker 1: most European languages not named from Greek or Roman mythology. 51 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: So where did the name Earth come from? The short 52 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: answer is that the word earth just means the ground. 53 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: That's what the name for our planet means in pretty 54 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:36,640 Speaker 1: much every language. Earth specifically, is a term for the 55 00:03:36,640 --> 00:03:39,160 Speaker 1: ground that we've been using with a few sound and 56 00:03:39,200 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: spelling modifications since the earliest recorded form of English about 57 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:48,120 Speaker 1: a thousand years ago. Old English borrowed it from a 58 00:03:48,160 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: Proto Germanic term that also gave rise to modern German 59 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: and Dutch words for our planet. All of these may 60 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:56,960 Speaker 1: root from a term for the ground in what's called 61 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: proto Indo European, a hypothetical common ancest of all of 62 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,680 Speaker 1: the Indo European languages that was spoken at least four 63 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:09,400 Speaker 1: thousand years ago. Other European languages use Latin roots like 64 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:14,440 Speaker 1: terra meaning the land or mundus meaning the universe, and 65 00:04:14,800 --> 00:04:19,039 Speaker 1: even totally unrelated languages like Mandarin use words that mean 66 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:24,680 Speaker 1: the land, all of which makes sense. We didn't understand 67 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: Earth to be a planet like Jupiter or Mars until 68 00:04:27,920 --> 00:04:31,919 Speaker 1: around the fifteen hundreds, so before then we were just 69 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: talking about the ground beneath our feet, and again those 70 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:41,520 Speaker 1: names more or less stuck. By the way, Earth is 71 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 1: sometimes spelled with a lowercase E, which indicates that you're 72 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:49,440 Speaker 1: talking about, you know, actual dirt or land. When you're 73 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,479 Speaker 1: talking about the planet as a whole, it is a 74 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:55,320 Speaker 1: proper noun, and thus capital e Earth as a sign 75 00:04:55,360 --> 00:05:00,160 Speaker 1: of respect for this glorious dirt ball that gives us life. 76 00:05:03,240 --> 00:05:05,760 Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article who named Planet 77 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 1: Earth on HowStuffWorks? Dot com written by Mark Mancini. Brain 78 00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:11,280 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with 79 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: HowStuffWorks dot com and it is produced by Tyler Klang. 80 00:05:14,080 --> 00:05:17,320 Speaker 1: Before more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 81 00:05:17,440 --> 00:05:20,360 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.