earth [OE] It is impossible to tell which meaning of earth came first in English: the senses ‘the ground’, ‘our planet’, and ‘soil’ are all found in Old English. Related words in other languages are German Erde and Dutch aarde, as in aardvark (see south african english). Earth meaning ‘the underground lair of a badger or fox’ dates from the 1300s. ‘The earth’ has been used in idioms like pay the earth, cost the earth and expect the earth since the 1880s. We think of earthling as being a term from science fiction, but it actually goes back at least as far as 1593: ‘We (of all earthlings) are God’s utmost subjects’ (Thomas Nashe, Christ’s Tears). Middle Earth was not an invention of J. R. R. Tolkien’s, but in use from the 12th century to distinguish this world as the middle region between heaven and hell.