Why do Science Fiction writers call Earth, "Terra"?

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by JoeD

Another thought that just occurred whilst writing the above, with Terra, you get to call people who come from there Terrans, but Earthlings which I assume is the equivalent for Earth, sounds rather cheesy imo. Granted you could just say Humans, but then that's not identifying the place of origin if you assume we've spread out across the galaxy.

If we actually met other races, they might not be interested in classifying us by our planet, but by our race.

Of course, if our history is any guide, aliens would probably wouldn't care what we call ourselves and would give us a name like:

1. "Greetings" - because that was the first thing we said to them; or
2. "Topekans" - because the first ship landed in Topeka and asked where they were, and were told they were in Topeka; or
3. "Rigellians" - because they thought they had found a shortcut to Rigel; or
4. "Two-eyes" - because the aliens have more or less than two eyes.

If we're lucky, we will avoid being called things like "cattle" or "food" or "slave population 10293b".

[taustin]

Originally Posted by Edward M. Grant

Never heard of them.

Their book "Illegal Aliens" made a running joke out of it. In what today would be reconized as the Google translation game - translate something in to a different language, then translate it back - "earth" became "dirt," and "earthling" became "dirtling."

[Ekaros]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

If we actually met other races, they might not be interested in classifying us by our planet, but by our race.

Of course, if our history is any guide, aliens would probably wouldn't care what we call ourselves and would give us a name like:

1. "Greetings" - because that was the first thing we said to them; or
2. "Topekans" - because the first ship landed in Topeka and asked where they were, and were told they were in Topeka; or
3. "Rigellians" - because they thought they had found a shortcut to Rigel; or
4. "Two-eyes" - because the aliens have more or less than two eyes.

If we're lucky, we will avoid being called things like "cattle" or "food" or "slave population 10293b".

Or they first meet some bored guy doing long range surveys or mining or like and they do practical joke and use some profanity to refer us. And this enter general circulation ;D

[Lemurion]

I always thought it was at least partly because "Terrans" sounds so much better than "Earthlings," or "Earthians."

The word "Earth," is just a crappy word that way.

[DustyDisks]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Aren't these the latin words ? (Yes definitively).

Probably just to make it "look strange" The same as the sometimes weird spelling and stuff.

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I had never thought about it before, but I guess earth, moon and sun ar English, whereas terra, luna and sol are Latin, and therefore more international. And more sciency.

If you're telling an alien species the name of your world, it seems like you ought to pick something that speakers of other languages are happy with.

I for one would blame it all on the ancient Latin speakers, and the influence the Latin language has had in literature over the century's.

(They are not around any more to defend themselves!)

[GlenBarrington]

Please tell us why you have done what you did.

Personally, I've come to the conclusion that people just don't think about it much any more! It's a convention that a lot of people just accept.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Grok and frak come easily to mind.

As does Tanj (There Ain't No Justice).

[JoeD]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

If we actually met other races, they might not be interested in classifying us by our planet, but by our race.

I probably didn't make my point clearly. I meant humans referring to other humans rather than aliens referring to humans.

If humanity spreads out amongst the stars and colonies are established and they wanted to say someone was originally born on the Earth, other than obviously just saying "Everyone knows people from Earth are scum", they could also say, "Everyone knows Terran's are scum."

Or "Terrans have always considered themselves superior to us Vagans"

Still all humans, just that some were born on Earth, others on a colony.

Aliens would likely not notice us anyway and have the Earth mentioned only as a place to demolish for the intergalactic highway.

[cromag]

In my limited experience, when aliens meet us as fellow citizens of the universe we're Terrans; when they meet us a conquerors, they call us Earthlings.

For all we know, the aliens will call cats Terrans and try to make first contact with them. After all, cats are clearly our masters.

[QuantumIguana]

When humans are living on other planets,, we'll need to make a distinction between a member of our species and a human living on Earth. You might use Terran to refer to a human from Earth, and reserve human for a member of our species.

[murg]

Because Terra is nice and clean, and Earth is, well, dirty...

[Prestidigitweeze]

The SF writers I've known well avoided the word Terra as a substitute for Earth for the simple reason that no one was likely to say Terra unless the culture actually became stodgier, which, in their view, was extremely unlikely. Language seemed to them to constantly evolve toward shedding all mannerisms which diluted direct communication.

They were part of a generation that shunned ornament in the same way that mainstream writers like Raymond Carver and Dennis Cooper did. The influence came from rock culture, semiotics (Barthes by way of Gibson) and a cultural return to the relative minimalism of Hemingway.

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

Please tell us why you have done what you did.

Personally, I've come to the conclusion that people just don't think about it much any more! It's a convention that a lot of people just accept.

[fjtorres]

When the Great Galactic Empire comes to Earth everybody will be falling all over themselves learing Interlac and talking like the overlords. Or at least the Viceroy. Lisp and all.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

When the Great Galactic Empire comes to Earth everybody will be falling all over themselves learing Interlac and talking like the overlords. Or at least the Viceroy. Lisp and all.

I AM the Galactic Overlord, I haven't manifesthed that athpect yet. I rethent the implicathion that I have a lithp. And if I did, it would be charming.

You tread on thin ith thir.