orthography - Why is ‘Earth’ often spelt with a lowercase e, even when referring to the planet?


The word earth has several meanings; the most central one is ‘soil, dirt’, that thing we walk on when we’re outside. It’s also used as a name for the planet we live on.


The Lexico definition for this sense has:



(also Earth)
The planet on which we live; the world



Note the word also: the entry is lowercase, and this sense, in which it functions as a proper noun, also appears capitalised.


But proper nouns are as a rule always capitalised. Mars, Pluto, Venus, and all the other planet names in our solar system are always capitalised.


The first two of the following examples of lowercase earth are from the King James Bible and show that this isn’t a new thing; it’s been like this for a long time:


Job 26:5–13, Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)




  1. Dead things are formed from under the waters,
    and the inhabitants thereof.

  2. Hell is naked before him,
    and destruction hath no covering.

  3. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place,
    and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

  4. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds;
    and the cloud is not rent under them.

  5. He holdeth back the face of his throne,
    and spreadeth his cloud upon it.

  6. He hath compassed the waters with bounds,
    until the day and night come to an end.

  7. The pillars of heaven tremble
    and are astonished at his reproof.

  8. He divideth the sea with his power,
    and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.

  9. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens;
    his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.




Psalm 24:1–3, Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)




  1. The earth is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s, and the fulness thereof;
    the world, and they that dwell therein.

  2. For he hath founded it upon the seas,
    and established it upon the floods.

  3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lᴏʀᴅ?
    or who shall stand in his holy place?




William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Folio 1, 1623



The Lunaticke, the Louer, and the Poet,
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more diuels then vaste hell can hold;
That is the mad man. The Louer, all as franticke,
Sees Helens beauty in a brow of Egipt.
The Poets eye in a fine frenzy rolling, doth glance
From heauen to earth, from earth to heauen.




Chuck Palahniuk, Damned, 2011



What makes earth feel like hell is our expectation that it should feel like heaven.




But why is the Earth’s name so different from the other planets’ names? Why is this proper noun so inconsistently capitalised in English?




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