Etymologically
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globe

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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
  • 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