earthly

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English erthely, also erthly,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English eorþlic (“worldly, pertaining to this world”),^[5][2] formed from eorþe (“earth”) and -līc (“-ly”).^[2] Its Old English base goes back to Proto-Germanic *erþō.^[5] The OED treats the adjective as cognate with, or formed in the same way as, Old Saxon erthlīk and Old Norse jarðligr, and compares heavenly and worldly.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the earth; worldly and material, as opposed to heavenly: in Old English, in the Blickling Homilies,^[6] and before 1000 by Dictionary.com's date.^[3] A plural noun, earthly things as opposed to heavenly ones, appears in the Lindisfarne Gospels.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Old English contrast with heaven has stayed at the centre of the word: Chaucer used it 35 times for "worldly, mortal",^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "not heavenly" and "not spiritual", adding the harsher "vile; mean; sordid",^[8] and Dictionary.com still says that it almost always implies that contrast.^[3] The literal sense, made of or like earth as a substance, is recorded from before 1398 in Trevisa and is now rare;^[6] another, living or existing in the ground, ran from Old English to 1767.^[6] From that physical sense came "pale, lifeless" (about 1460, in Lydgate),^[6] which survived in Herefordshire: how earthly the old man do look.^[9][6] West Yorkshire dialect had a further sense, "rough, austere", and East Yorkshire the phrase yathly wold, this world.^[9] From 1679 the adjective served as an intensifier in negative and interrogative contexts, meaning "at all, whatever",^[6] and this produced the British colloquial noun earthly, a chance, as in having not an earthly,^[6][10] recorded in the OED from 1897 and in Green's slang dictionary from 1903.^[6][11] Science fiction has used it since the late 19th century for what belongs to the planet Earth rather than another.^[6]

Timeline

• before 1000 – of the earth; worldly, material, as opposed to heavenly.^[6][3]
• before 1398 – consisting of or resembling earth as a substance.^[6] Etymonline dates the sense "belonging to or originating in the earth" to the mid-15th century.^[5]
• c. 1460 – pale, lifeless, deathly, in Lydgate.^[6]
• 1651 – plural noun, earthly beings, in Wither.^[6]
• before 1661 – of a horse, dull and stolid (obsolete).^[6]
• 1679 – intensifier after any or no: on earth, at all.^[6]
• 1876 – of the Earth as distinct from another planet.^[6]
• 1897 – noun, an earthly chance of success.^[6][11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to this world, as opposed to heaven; terrestrial: her earthly remains.^{[12][10][2][6]}
2. Concerned with material things rather than spiritual ones; worldly: earthly riches.^[12][10][2]
3. Usually with a negative or in a question, conceivable or possible: There's no earthly reason to wait.^[12][10][6]
4. Chiefly in science fiction, of the planet Earth as distinct from another planet.^[6]
5. (archaic) Made of or resembling earth; earthen or earthy.^[2][6]

Noun

1. (British, colloquial) Usually in negative phrases such as not an earthly: a chance of success.^[6][10][11]

Word family

• earthliness
• superearthly
• unearthly

Related words

• earth
• earthy
• earthling

Usage notes

Dictionary.com separates four near-synonyms: earthly now almost always implies a contrast with what is heavenly; terrestrial is its more dignified equivalent, and applies to the earth as a planet or to land as opposed to water; worldly suggests devotion to the gains of this life at the expense of spiritual interests; mundane is a formal equivalent of worldly that suggests the commonplace.^[3]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Mayhew, A. L.; Skeat, Walter W. (1888), A Concise Dictionary of Middle English from A.D. 1150 to 1580, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
12. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt