terrestris

Forms

terrestris (neuter terrestre); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] Florus has a masculine nominative terrester.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin terra (“earth, land”) + -estris.^[2][4][5] Wiktionary suggests it may rather go back to a Proto-Italic *terzestris built on a stem also seen in terrēnus (“earthen”), the suffix being reanalysed later.^[1] De Vaan traces terra to *tersā- (“earth”) and Proto-Indo-European *ters-h₂- (“dry land”), generally derived from the root *ters- (“to dry out”) seen in torreō (“to parch”).^[4] Cognate with Oscan teras (“earth”) and perhaps Old Irish tír (“territory”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4] who jokes that a pig is a “land beast” and calls a dinner of pork a “land dinner”, and also prays to a “Jupiter on earth”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It means living or taking place on land, as opposed to water, as Accius already uses it; living on or belonging to the ground; and belonging to this world, earthly or terrestrial, against the heavens.^[2][3] Cicero divides living creatures into the divine, the winged, the aquatic and the terrestrial.^[3] English formed terrestrial from it in the late 14th century, as the opposite of celestial.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of a pig as a land animal and of a Jupiter on earth.^[2][4][5]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius of slaughter on land.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of terrestrial creatures.^[3][5]
• late 14th century – English forms terrestrial from it.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Living, operating or taking place on land, as opposed to water.^[2][3]
2. Living on or in, belonging to, the ground.^[2]
3. Belonging to this world, earthly, terrestrial.^[2][1]

Related words

• terra
• terrēnus
• English terrestrial

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com