tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Apr 10 14:27:49 1996
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Re: KLBC & vocabulary
- From: [email protected]
- Subject: Re: KLBC & vocabulary
- Date: Wed, 10 Apr 1996 17:27:18 -0400
In a message dated 96-04-10 10:55:13 EDT, you write:
>In most Scifi stories
>\ Earth is called Terra, I think it comes from Terra Firma (firm ground???).
>Other way around. Terra is simply the Latin word for "earth" or
>"ground"; "firma" means "hard" or "firm" (although the usual English
>gloss of "terra firma" is "*solid* ground").
>
>The tendency in more recent SF seems to be to stick with "Earth" for
>our home planet, which is fine by me.
[. . .]
>Saying it in Latin doesn't make it
>more dignified, even if the medical profession believes otherwise.
My personal theory on this (which is beginning to stray away from Klingon,
but . . .) is that SF writers discussing worlds beyond our own needed a name
for our star. They couldn't call it "Sun," because "sun" is a regular noun,
not a name. "The Sun" would be quite unacceptable in a space-faring
civilization! The only name *I* can think of (not knowing many languages, of
course) is "Sol." It may mean the same thing in Latin, but since it's a dead
language, it's unlikely spacers will be speaking it. Now that we have the
name "Sol" to use, you could still say "Earth," but why not continue on with
using the Latin? "Terra."
Now, I'd LOVE to hear how the inhabitants of "Angel One" began to use THAT
name! They are apparently indigenous!
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