Illustrative Context

As he dug the hole, he threw out the earth.

Target Sense

• The most generic term for the loose material that covers a land surface — not the planet, the world.
• In many languages this may be the same term as for the planet ‘earth’ (as in English), in which case this generic term will be suitable. But avoid terms that are specific to the sense of the planet. So for example in French monde is wrong, and terre is correct for the target sense.
• In many languages this will be the same term as used in the traditional Classical concept of the four ‘elements’, i.e. earth as opposed to air, fire and water.
• Avoid terms specifically for cultivated earth to plant in, e.g. soil.
• Avoid narrower terms for specific types of earth, e.g. sandy, silty or clayey soils.
• Avoid terms specifically for land, country, countryside, etc..

Note: This IE-CoR target sense is significantly different to the ‘earth’ meaning as intended in versions of the Swadesh basic vocabulary lists.

See the IE-CoR language entries for this meaning on the website or data entry system.