WEBVTT - Who Named the Planet Earth?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain Stuff

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<v Speaker 1>Laura Vogelbaum. Here, the planets of our Solar system are bright,

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<v Speaker 1>mobile points of light in our night sky, and we

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<v Speaker 1>humans have thus been fascinated by them for thousands of years.

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<v Speaker 1>Ancient peoples all over the world noticed that these objects

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<v Speaker 1>shine like stars, but move differently, seemingly wandering through different constellations.

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<v Speaker 1>But we now know that this isn't really mysterious. It's

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<v Speaker 1>because the planets are in orbit around our Sun and

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<v Speaker 1>real stars aren't. Still, our word planet comes from an

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<v Speaker 1>ancient Greek term meaning wanderer. Ancient Greeks named the five

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<v Speaker 1>brightest planets those that can be seen with the naked

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<v Speaker 1>eye for their dominant attributes. They then assigned each one

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<v Speaker 1>as being sacred to or part of the domain of

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<v Speaker 1>a coordinating god of their pantheon. A side note, the

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<v Speaker 1>Greeks possibly borrowed this from Babylonian associations with the planets,

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<v Speaker 1>but it's complicated at any rate. That is how a

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<v Speaker 1>large bright planet was connected with Zeus, the king of

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<v Speaker 1>the gods. The brightest was given to Aphrodite, a goddess

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<v Speaker 1>of love and beauty. The red one to Ares, the

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<v Speaker 1>god of war, and the fastest to Hermes, the fleet

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<v Speaker 1>footed messenger of the gods. The slowest moving planet seen,

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<v Speaker 1>perhaps as Stately, was associated with Chronos, a father of Zeus.

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<v Speaker 1>The ancient Romans borrowed a lot from the Greeks, including

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<v Speaker 1>their mythology and the association of the planets with certain gods,

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<v Speaker 1>though the Romans sort of skipped the middleman and named

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<v Speaker 1>those planets directly for the Roman versions of those gods,

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<v Speaker 1>and because the Romans language Blatin was the lingua franca

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<v Speaker 1>of European science long after the fall of the Empire,

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<v Speaker 1>those names stuck in most European languages, with the few

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<v Speaker 1>variations on spelling and pronunciation, which is how we arrived

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<v Speaker 1>in English at kingly Jupiter, bright, Venus, red Mars, quick Mercury,

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<v Speaker 1>and stately Saturn. A scientist's discovered telescopes throughout these sixteen

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<v Speaker 1>and seventeen hundreds, leading to the discovery of two new planets.

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<v Speaker 1>After some argument, astronomers agreed to roll with the ancient

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<v Speaker 1>naming convention, thus giving us Uranus, which is a Latinized

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<v Speaker 1>version of the Greek god of the sky, and Neptune

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<v Speaker 1>with its blue tint named for the Roman god of

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<v Speaker 1>the sea, and whether you consider Pluto a true planet

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<v Speaker 1>or not, you can see our episode about that for more.

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<v Speaker 1>It was named for the Roman god of the underworld,

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<v Speaker 1>given its existence out in the cold, dark reaches of

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<v Speaker 1>the Solar System. The name was suggested in nineteen thirty

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<v Speaker 1>by an English schoolgirl of Venetia, Bernie. Urban legends say

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<v Speaker 1>that she named the planet after the dog Pluto from

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<v Speaker 1>Walt Disney's Making Mount cartoons, but it seems to be

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<v Speaker 1>the other way around. A Disney's cartoon Pooch went by

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<v Speaker 1>Rover until nineteen thirty one, when his name was switched

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<v Speaker 1>to Pluto. All of this means that of the planets

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<v Speaker 1>in our Solar System, Earth is the only one in

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<v Speaker 1>most European languages not named from Greek or Roman mythology.

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<v Speaker 1>So where did the name Earth come from? The short

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<v Speaker 1>answer is that the word earth just means the ground.

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<v Speaker 1>That's what the name for our planet means in pretty

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<v Speaker 1>much every language. Earth specifically, is a term for the

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<v Speaker 1>ground that we've been using with a few sound and

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<v Speaker 1>spelling modifications since the earliest recorded form of English about

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<v Speaker 1>a thousand years ago. Old English borrowed it from a

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<v Speaker 1>Proto Germanic term that also gave rise to modern German

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<v Speaker 1>and Dutch words for our planet. All of these may

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<v Speaker 1>root from a term for the ground in what's called

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<v Speaker 1>proto Indo European, a hypothetical common ancest of all of

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<v Speaker 1>the Indo European languages that was spoken at least four

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<v Speaker 1>thousand years ago. Other European languages use Latin roots like

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<v Speaker 1>terra meaning the land or mundus meaning the universe, and

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<v Speaker 1>even totally unrelated languages like Mandarin use words that mean

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<v Speaker 1>the land, all of which makes sense. We didn't understand

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<v Speaker 1>Earth to be a planet like Jupiter or Mars until

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<v Speaker 1>around the fifteen hundreds, so before then we were just

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<v Speaker 1>talking about the ground beneath our feet, and again those

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<v Speaker 1>names more or less stuck. By the way, Earth is

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<v Speaker 1>sometimes spelled with a lowercase E, which indicates that you're

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<v Speaker 1>talking about, you know, actual dirt or land. When you're

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<v Speaker 1>talking about the planet as a whole, it is a

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<v Speaker 1>proper noun, and thus capital e Earth as a sign

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<v Speaker 1>of respect for this glorious dirt ball that gives us life.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode is based on the article who named Planet

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<v Speaker 1>Earth on HowStuffWorks? Dot com written by Mark Mancini. Brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with

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<v Speaker 1>HowStuffWorks dot com and it is produced by Tyler Klang.

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