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"We're whalers on the moon..."
I'm not sure, but wiki might be the greatest invention known to man. Who cares if it's not 100% accurate? It's the new Truth.
So I've been wondering - "Lieutenant." Why do we in the US say "lootenant" while in the UK they say "leftenant?" And wiki told me. Old spellings and such, and we *used* to say "leftenant" in the US, but somewhere in the 1800s we started saying it the other way. Probably just to be pissy.
Wiki also reminded me that our moon has no formal name other than The Moon. A fact which, if you've known me for a while, disturbs me greatly. It ranks right up there with SG-1 puppets, quite frankly.
Ah, I remember the first time ranting about the moon's lack of name as if it were yesterday - sitting with a friend in the bleachers at high school, watching football practice. Friend told me to shut up and watch the boys. Mwah.
So I've been wondering - "Lieutenant." Why do we in the US say "lootenant" while in the UK they say "leftenant?" And wiki told me. Old spellings and such, and we *used* to say "leftenant" in the US, but somewhere in the 1800s we started saying it the other way. Probably just to be pissy.
Wiki also reminded me that our moon has no formal name other than The Moon. A fact which, if you've known me for a while, disturbs me greatly. It ranks right up there with SG-1 puppets, quite frankly.
Ah, I remember the first time ranting about the moon's lack of name as if it were yesterday - sitting with a friend in the bleachers at high school, watching football practice. Friend told me to shut up and watch the boys. Mwah.
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If you want to be technical about it, according to the online etymology dictionary: O.E. eorðe "ground, soil, dry land," also used (along with middangeard) for "the (material) world" (as opposed to the heavens or the underworld), from P.Gmc. *ertho (cf. O.N. jörð, M.Du. eerde, O.H.G. erda, Goth. airþa), from PIE base *er-. The earth considered as a planet was so called from c.1400. Earthy in the fig. sense of "coarse, unrefined" is from 1594. Earthworm first attested 1591. Earthwork is from 1633. Earthlight apparently coined 1833 by British astronomer John Herschel.
For more information: http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/question.php?number=451