Earth, Earthlings, Terrans, Sol, Humans...MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!!!

[All Seeing Eye]

What I would like to know is what term will we use in real life when we DO meet aliens.

Greetings, we are Humans from the planet Earth.

Greetings, we are Terrans from the planet Earth.

Greetings, we are Earthlings from the planet Earth.

What if we DO end up becoming some kind of galactic Empire in the future , what would we be called?

The Human Empire.
The Terran Empire.
The Earthling Empire.
The Earth Empire.

 

[Triskelion]

The Federation.

 

[cultcross]

While not used for the planet per se, in Best of Both Worlds, Worf reports that the Borg are heading for Sector 001, the Sol System.

And then Riker, realizing that the common viewer would cock their heads back a little at the name, clarifies to the screen, "Earth."

One of my favorite 'Riker Clarifications' out there. Another one, from First Contact:

"They're opening a temporal vortex!"
"Time-Travel."

Worf said they were heading for the Terran system, not the Sol system.

My mistake, but it does reinforce two points:

1. the term 'Terran' was indeed used outside of the Mirror universe
2. Riker *still* used his Riker Clarification

I watched this last night and I always thought, on this thread's theme, that the 'terran system' bit of Worf's line was a bit redundant - it ends up being said 3 ways - 'sector 001', 'the terran system', and 'earth' - Riker could have done his Riker Explains It All bit just from the sector number.

 

[bluedana]

What is the deal here?? Why is Trek so overwhelmed with different names for us and earth? Hell, the Vulcans have to share the same name between themselves and their home world. Why do we have so many options?

It depends on what/whom you're talking about. "Human" fits as a biological, cultural term, whether living on Earth or colonized elsewhere. You could be born and raised on Earth, but not biologically human, in which case "Terran," a broader geographical term would be more accurate.

"Earther," in my opinion, is tied to the planet (regardless of species), whereas Terran can be used to refer to colonies (of any Earth-originated species) elsewhere. And "Earthling" sounds too 1950's cheesy sci-fi. (And I agree, the "-ing" suffix makes it sound like a diminutive.)

I think it's more a case of the concept of the term Vulcan (or at least Vulcan language) being so limited, rather than our terms for humans being to varied. Of course, why would an alien species name itself after a random character in an obsolete Earth/Terran/human myth anyway?

 

[Apogeal Alpha01]

Wow, I am in agreement with Sol, and Solarans, or Solarians. Earthling sounds diminutive, almost a pejorative term for those of us from the Planet Earth.

I agree also with Terran, meaning human, originating on Earth. I think Solaran has a nice ring to it.

 

[C.E. Evans]

IMO, "human" is a generic term to describe any baseline humanoid, be it from Earth, Betazed, Delta, etc., with similar physical features. Those with very different physical features (like Vulcans, Klingons, and Cardassians), fall into the "humanoid" category.

"Terran" describes humans from Earth.

"Earthlings, Earthers, Worthless Pieces of !@#$" are slang terms for Terrans...

 

[Non-Trekkie Trekkie]

IMO, "human" is a generic term to describe any baseline humanoid, be it from Earth, Betazed, Delta, etc., with similar physical features. Those with very different physical features (like Vulcans, Klingons, and Cardassians), fall into the "humanoid" category.

"Terran" describes humans from Earth.

"Earthlings, Earthers, Worthless Pieces of !@#$" are slang terms for Terrans...

I've always thought that the way Trek refers to "Humanoids" to be a bit pretensous.

 

[Cyke101]

Hm, if people from Earth are called Humans/Solarans/Terrans/etc, I wonder how people from Qu'onos got around to calling themselves Klingons. I'm sincerely interested, as I think we have a wee bit too many cultures named after their planets (Romulans from Romulus, Betazoids from Betazed, Ferengi from Ferenginar, etc etc).

 

[Bad Atom]

Voyager returns from the Delta Quadrant...

Starfleet: "Congratulations, you've made it back to Sol III!"
Janeway: "Crap, we thought this was Earth. Okay crew, let's get back on the road..."

 

[Timo]

I watched this last night and I always thought, on this thread's theme, that the 'terran system' bit of Worf's line was a bit redundant - it ends up being said 3 ways - 'sector 001', 'the terran system', and 'earth' - Riker could have done his Riker Explains It All bit just from the sector number.

...To be sure, Sector 001 might contain more star systems than just Sol.

As for the multitude of names for our species, culture, planet, star and star system, I'm sure most of those alien species have those, too. The Universal Translator just refuses to translate the complexities, so everybody who's not speaking and listening English to begin with misses out on this.

It wouldn't do to truly translate all that stuff, really, because every species would probably translate as "the people" or "the humans", and every second planet would be "earth" or "motherworld". It's far simpler to deliberately leave words like "Bajor" untranslated, even if "bajor" is just the Bajoran word for "ground".

Conversely, I'm sure that Kira is only aware of a single word for us mankind and for our planet, star and star system (be it Humans from planet Human, or Terrans from planet Terra, or Flatnoses from planet Flatnose, or whatever). Her own translator program would see to that.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[C.E. Evans]

IMO, "human" is a generic term to describe any baseline humanoid, be it from Earth, Betazed, Delta, etc., with similar physical features. Those with very different physical features (like Vulcans, Klingons, and Cardassians), fall into the "humanoid" category.

"Terran" describes humans from Earth.

"Earthlings, Earthers, Worthless Pieces of !@#$" are slang terms for Terrans...

I've always thought that the way Trek refers to "Humanoids" to be a bit pretensous.

Well, it would almost have to be a kinda abitrary thing in an Earth-led Federation. I'm sure other terms could have been developed like "carbon-based life-forms" (as in TMP) or "Bipedals," but "Humanoid" may have been just the easiest term to use even if not the most politically correct.

 

[Deckerd]

'Earthlings' belongs to 1950s sci fi B movies.

B5 used 'Earthers' which sounds logical, although 'humans' is also logical since it's highly unlikely that, should any other species ever be discovered, it will be anything like us.

Just as a matter of interest, what are the options in other languages - Spanish and French for instance?

 

[Michael]

^ In German there are "Menschen", "Erdlinge", "Erdenmenschen", "Terraner" and probably "Terrestrier". Although all of them sound kinda strange to the German ear (except for "Menschen").

 

[chancellorjake]

Just as a matter of interest, what are the options in other languages - Spanish and French for instance?

A quick search reveals that terms used by most modern languages were influenced by the Latin terms in some way.

French - Earth = Terre, Sun = Soleil
Spanish - Earth = Tierra, Sun = Sol
Italian - Earth = Terra, Sun = Sole
Dutch - Earth = Aarde, Sun = Zon
German - Earth = Erde, Sun = Sonne
Norwegian - Earth = Jord, Sun = Sol

Personally, I'm partial to the German and Dutch terms.

 

[Deckerd]

What we need now is someone who has watched non-English sci-fi and knows what terms were used for Earth dwellers...

 

[Triskelion]

And remember that not all humans are necessarily from the planet Earth. There are colonies on Luna and Mars as well as stations in orbit. It's quite feasible that we would make a distinction between "Earthers" and "Lunars", for example, so that the term Earther would not apply to all. In which case you get into distinctions like Solaran; humans born on other planets would be, for example, Vulcan-Human or Human-Andorian, it's pretty confusing.

So maybe in an extrasolar society, the simplest way would be to refer to one's star.

But I don't see getting past the habit of saying Human.

Perhaps it's time to reform the language?

 

[bluedana]

Just as a matter of interest, what are the options in other languages - Spanish and French for instance?

A quick search reveals that terms used by most modern languages were influenced by the Latin terms in some way.

French - Earth = Terre, Sun = Soleil
Spanish - Earth = Tierra, Sun = Sol
Italian - Earth = Terra, Sun = Sole
Dutch - Earth = Aarde, Sun = Zon
German - Earth = Erde, Sun = Sonne
Norwegian - Earth = Jord, Sun = Sol

Personally, I'm partial to the German and Dutch terms.

There are many more modern languages that are not at all Latin derived or influenced.

 

[RandyS]

We Earthicans are a complex people.

 

[Triskelion]

Earthers sounds roughneck, like spacesuit-clad scavenging crews knocking back swill and trading barbs in the orbital watering hole.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Just as a matter of interest, what are the options in other languages - Spanish and French for instance?

Sorry to chime in late. Here in Italy, things are quite forward, since the English word "Earth" translates simply into "Terra", so to our ears the distinction is lost.

So the planet is just "Terra" and the inhabitants are "Terrestri" (for both "Earthers" and "Terrans").

"Earthling" could be made into "Terricoli", which is a disused word and sounds quite rude and very antiquate, like in "Bow to me, lowly Earthlings!"

"Humans" is "Umani", and the meaning is more cultural (or biological) than geographic (i.e. people from Earth's colonies would be called "Umani" but probabli not "Terrestri").

"Sol" sounds cool when used to identify our sun, but it would sound wrong used for people: "Solaran" would suggest people from a planet "Solara" more than people from Earth's star system.