globe [LME] In the past the term globe, a borrowing of Latin globus, had a wider range of meaning than today and could be used for almost anything globular [E17th], from an eyeball to a cannon ball to a mass of people to a comet. Use for a spherical map of the earth appears in the mid 16th century. Global [M16th], originally ‘globe shaped’, developed the sense ‘universal, worldwide’ in the mid 19th century. Sphere [ME], from Greek sphaira ‘globe, ball’, and globe were often interchangeable in early use, but sphere has always tended to be a more academic word. From it were formed words such as *atmosphere, biosphere [L19th] combining with bio- ‘life’, hemisphere [L16th] with hemi- ‘half’, as well as spherical [E16th] and spheroid [M17th].