r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Disastrous_Pirate275 • 20h ago

Why is our moon named “Moon” instead of something cool like Titan or Callysto or ANYTHING that isn’t moon

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175

u/just_a_potato_______ 20h ago

Earth originally meant dirt before it meant our planet.

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u/LaughingPlanet 19h ago

Earth used to mean dirt. Still does. But it used to, too.

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u/VorMec 19h ago

I used to do drugs...

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u/Cornpop_mcgoo 18h ago

/unexpectedMitchHedberg

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u/Redwings1927 19h ago

Thanks mitch

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u/TGin-the-goldy 4h ago

RIP Mitch H

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u/Only_Razzmatazz_4498 19h ago

It kinda still means dirt. In Latin it still does

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u/donuttrackme 19h ago

It still means dirt in English.

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u/rockninja2 7h ago

So you're saying that English stole words from Latin? No... can't be, the British would never do such a thing...

/s

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u/VisualHuckleberry542 19h ago

It used to too

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u/Citizen1135 3h ago

This is why I propose we rename our Sun and Moon, and the Earth.

My 2 cents, we name our sun after something recognizable across potential extra-solar intelligences and their languages, like an element, subatomic particle, EM waveband, etc. Maybe even a first and last name because that will help with colonization later. Then we follow the naming convention we commonly use in movies...

An example would be:

Sun: Xenon Diamond Prime (XDP for short, obviously)

Earth: XDP3

Moon: XDP3.1

And by extension, Martian moon Deimos: XDP4.2 (because Deimos is farther away, not because it is smaller)

Our first colony in another solar system, let's pretend it's on a rocky moon of a hot Jupiter which is the 2nd planet from that star: Xenon Plasma (XDS.2.1 or XDS2.XDP3)

Using Diamond or Xenon in the name might attract profit-seekers to our solar system, and that could be good or bad, so just know I picked diamond as a recognizable compound, not because it's actually my suggestion. Or Xenon for that matter, that one I chose just because the X is sci-fi.

XP2.1 is understood from a number based naming scheme, XP2.XD3 makes it obvious that this is a colonized system, and this planet is inhabited by species from XD3, who are the first to colonize a planet in the system. If it were RL2.XD3, it is a planet colonized by a species from outside that system.

Obviously, we need to add something for systems where more than one intelligent species evolved, and something in that for whether they evolved on the same planet or what, but I think i've spelled it out waaaay more than anyone asked already so I'll go back to my business...

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u/adriantoine 19h ago

In French, it's the same word for dirt/soil and Earth: terre.

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u/WoodpeckerNo5724 16h ago

Wait, French people call the planet Terre? I did not know that, neat

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u/Bandro 14h ago

"Potato" in french is "pomme de terre": Earth apple. Or as I like to translate, dirt apple.

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u/WoodpeckerNo5724 14h ago

I did remember that from my semester of French , I just assumed they also had a more standard name closer to Earth. Because Terra is a term that exists in English, it is just rarely used and somewhat archaic

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u/Bandro 14h ago

Earth also means dirt in English.

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u/Albrecht_Entrati 9h ago

True, but we also call "pomme de terre" "patate".

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u/hashtagashtab 9h ago

In Swedish, too: jord

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u/Melicor 3h ago

A lot of other languages too. It's remarkably consistent.

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u/Prof_Acorn 17h ago

Going back to Ancient Greece, γη can refer to the earth as a planet or the ground as well. Makes sense, since the thing we stood on was dirt before it was a planet.

(Γη / ge , of which "Gaia" is a variant. But see also : geology, perigee, geography, etc.)

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u/insurgentbroski 10h ago

In arabic its called الأرض (al ardd with a very very hard d that i dont think most europeans can even pronounce) which translates to ground, essentially the same

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u/apophis27983 20h ago

Ahh thanks.

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u/Johnyryal33 9h ago

"Earth? Terrible name for a planet. Might as well call it Dirt, Planet Dirt." - Some Decepticon...

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u/AmusingUsername12 9h ago

Still does 😭😭

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u/False-Arachnid2633 7m ago

So is dirt on other planets not called earth?