globe

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡləʊb/ (UK); /ɡloʊb/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French globe and directly borrowed from Latin globus (“round mass, sphere; a throng”),^[2][3][4] which is related to glēba (“clod”) (see glebe) and perhaps to glomus (“ball of yarn”).^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large mass: the late 14th century in Etymonline;^[3] anything round like a ball, a sphere: about 1450 in Barnhart,^[2] the mid-15th century in Etymonline.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Word Origins notes that globe once covered almost anything globular, from an eyeball to a cannonball to a crowd of people.^[6] The planet Earth and a sphere with a map of the Earth drawn on it are both first recorded in Richard Eden's Treatise of the New India (1553).^[2][7] A planet or other heavenly body is from about 1566,^[7] the golden orb carried with the sceptre as an emblem of sovereignty from 1614,^[7] and a globe-shaped glass vessel from the 1660s.^[3] The verb, to form into a globe, is from 1641.^[7][4] In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa a globe is also a light bulb.^[8] The adjective global meant spherical in 1676 and worldwide by 1892.^[2]

Timeline

• late 14th century – a large mass.^[3]
• c. 1450 – a sphere.^[2]
• 1553 – the Earth; a terrestrial globe.^[2][7]
• 1614 – the royal orb.^[7]
• 1641 – the verb.^[7][4]
• 1660s – a glass vessel.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A spherical model of the Earth, or of the heavens, with a map on its surface.
2. the globe: the Earth; the world.
3. A planet or other heavenly body.
4. A round object, such as a glass lampshade or fishbowl; in Australia and South Africa, a light bulb.
5. An orb carried as a symbol of royal authority.

Verb

1. To form into a globe.

Word family

• globelike
• globefish
• globeflower
• globetrot
• globe-trotter
• globoid
• hemoglobin
• globe amaranth

Related words

• global
• globular
• globule
• glebe
• conglomerate

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, distinguishes the two words: a globe is often solid and a sphere often hollow, and the secondary senses of globe are physical while those of sphere are moral.^[3] Word Origins adds that sphere has always been the more academic word.^[6]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins