That ⟨地球⟩ is perhaps the only exception that we’re damn sure on how Earth got its name. The guy who coined the expression was a priest of the Papal States called Matteo Ricci, living in Ming around 1600. He did a living translating works back and forth between Chinese and Latin, and calqued that expression from Latin orbis terrarum - roughly “the globe of soils”, or “the ball of earths”.
That ⟨地球⟩ is perhaps the only exception that we’re damn sure on how Earth got its name. The guy who coined the expression was a priest of the Papal States called Matteo Ricci, living in Ming around 1600. He did a living translating works back and forth between Chinese and Latin, and calqued that expression from Latin orbis terrarum - roughly “the globe of soils”, or “the ball of earths”.
Woah, that’s awesome! I had no idea about the etymology. Thanks for sharing!