Etymologically
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tellus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈtɛl.luːs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtɛl.lus][1]

Forms

tellūs f (genitive tellūris); third declension[1]

Etymology

It is from Proto-Italic *teln-, from a root Proto-Indo-European *telh₂- (“flat, ground”).[2][1] Cognate with Old Irish talam (“earth”), Sanskrit तल (tala, “surface”) and Lithuanian tìlės (“floor of a boat”).[2][3] Its e alternates with the o of meditullium “the interior”, as in terra beside extorris.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Varro, and Köbler from Cicero.[2][4] Varro says Jupiter is called father and Tellūs Earth mother.[3] Köbler dates Varro 116–27 BC.[4]

Semantic evolution

It was mostly a poetic word for the ground as cultivable soil and the earth as producer of all things, and also the earth as a goddess.[3][5] It meant the solid earth, dry land as against sea, a particular land or country, and the earth as against the sky, as in Cicero's Dream of Scipio, where it is the ninth sphere at the centre.[3]

In modern times the German chemist Klaproth named the element English tellurium from it in 1798, and there are also English telluric and English tellurian from the 19th century.[6]

Timeline

  • 116–27 BC – Varro calls Tellus mother earth.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero places the earth at the centre in the Dream of Scipio.[3][4]
  • 1798 – Klaproth coins tellurium from it.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The earth, ground, soil.[3]
  2. Tellūs, the Earth as a goddess.[3]
  3. The solid earth; dry land.[3]
  4. A land, country.[3]
  5. The earth (as against the sky).[3]

Word family

  • telluster
  • meditullium
  • English tellurium

Usage notes

Döderlein says that tellūs is the earth as a whole, the centre of the universe or a goddess, while terra is earth as matter and element, solum the solid ground, and humus the lowest part of the visible world.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper