April 22: Earth Day

April 22nd has been recognized as Earth Day ever since 1970, the same year that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established. On a day where many people are focused on preserving green space and maintaining clean drinking water, we will look at the relationship between the Big Blue Marble and our language. Let's begin by looking at some 'roots.'

The Latin root for earth is terra, as in 'terra firma' = firm ground. It's the root found in words like subterranean, terrestrial, extraterrestrial, and terrarium.

The Greek root for earth is geo, as in geography, geology, and geopolitics.

On Earth Day, each of us becomes an Antaeus. Do you remember him from Greek mythology? He was the son of Gaia (mother earth) and Poseidon (god of the sea). Antaeus was an undefeated wrestler until he met up with Hercules, who was able to figure out his weakness. Even Hercules had trouble defeating the great wrestler until he lifted Antaeus' legs from the earth. When he did this, Antaeus became powerless. As a result, Antaeus is a powerful metaphor for those who realize that their strength and very survival depends on Mother Earth.

Our daily conversations are well 'grounded' in earth metaphors. A number of idioms (expressions of two or more words that mean something different from the literal meaning of the individual words) use the earth as a metaphor. Below are a few examples using the words "earth" and "ground" from The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (1).

down to earth
four corners of the earth
move heaven and earth
not have an earthly chance
salt of the earth

both feet on the ground
break ground
common ground
ear to the ground
from the ground up
gain ground
hit the ground running
happy hunting ground
run into the ground
stand one's ground
worship the ground someone walks on

Today's Challenge: Clear as Mud

Celebrate Earth Day by mining the language for expressions (idioms) containing the words listed below. Try to come up with as many as you can for each word:

mud
grass
dust
dirt
trees
water

Quote of the Day:
Imperious Caesar. dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expell the winter's flaw!
William Shakespeare in Hamlet Act V, scene 1

1 - Ammer, Christine. The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.