earthy

Etymology

It is formed from English earth + -y,^[2][3][4][5] and was Middle English erthy.^[5][6][7] The OED compares Middle Dutch erdich (Dutch aardig), Old Saxon erðag (Middle Low German ērdich) and Middle High German erdec (German erdig).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a substance, having the nature of earth or soil, and of colour, taste or smell, suggestive of earth: before 1398, in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, which describes a face of erþy colour and a river that is erþy, slymy and wosȝy.^[2][7] In the same text it is also used of the element earth, of creatures that live on the ground, and of an astrological sign.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word could also mean "belonging to this world, worldly".^[7] Etymonline dates its use for tastes and smells to the 1550s,^[3] but the OED has it already in Trevisa.^[2] The figurative sense "grossly material, coarse, unrefined" is recorded from 1594, in Bowes's translation of La Primaudaye,^[2][3] and later came to mean also down-to-earth and unpretentious, especially of humour.^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "consisting of earth" and "composed or partaking of earth; terrene", with quotations from Shakespeare.^[8] Scientific uses followed: of a dull, crumbly mineral from 1693, of a chemical "earth" from 1718, and in electrical engineering, of the side of a circuit at or near the potential of the ground, from 1876.^[2][9]

Timeline

• before 1398 – of the nature of earth or soil; suggestive of earth in colour or smell; of the element earth; dwelling on the ground.^[2][7]
• before 1500 – worldly.^[7]
• before 1533 – made of earth; of the human body.^[2]
• 1594 – coarse, unrefined.^[2]
• 1693 – of a mineral, lustreless and rough to the touch.^[2]
• 1718 – in chemistry, belonging to the earths.^[2]
• 1876 – at or near the electrical potential of the ground.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Resembling or suggesting soil, especially in smell, taste or colour: a damp, earthy scent in the cellar.^[10][11][5]
2. Made of or containing earth.^[10][9][2]
3. Crude or coarse; frank about sex and the body: earthy stories told over beer.^[9][10][11]
4. Hearty, natural and uninhibited; down-to-earth.^[10][9][2]
5. Plain and simple in style: an earthy farmhouse soup.^[10]
6. Of a mineral, dull and rough to the touch.^[5][2]
7. In electrical engineering, on the earthed side of a circuit.^[9][2]
8. (archaic) Of this world; worldly or terrestrial.^[9][5][10]

Word family

• earthily
• earthiness

Related words

• earthly

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
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 c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press