"Earth" or "The Earth"?

[megatiger78]

Terra?

[Newt]

I usually say (or so I think...) just 'Earth', if there is a context in which a 'the' is required, one almost universally has the option of 'the planet', or 'the object', which seem more to warrant the use of that definite article as they are broad, general categories, Earth is pretty specific as is.

@Bill Phill, from what I can tell, Uranus/Ouranos is Greek pretty generally, with the Roman name Caelus. Of course, this is pretty crude investigation, and it is not improbable that there were some Roman references to him by the Greek names at some point in time, they are just more elusive and generally ignored by secondary sources.

@Kibble. Interesting, I will have to look more into that, I am pretty sure I have seen Roman references to Pluto by the name 'Pluto', whether some of these may have been translated from 'Dis Pater' I can try to ascertain. Sometimes the names are rather odd, and sometimes it seems that several gods have the same name as aspects of eachother (Venus Cloacina, for instance, or Jupiter Capitolinus), and then there just are so many gods.

This does of course come in handy for the IAU, for you can pull heaps of names of gods to stick onto new objects. Ceres is probably going to get a feature named after the Roman god (or goddess) of wheat rust, Robigus. And how many people knew there was a god for wheat rust?

[bonyetty]

Whichever sounds best at the time, which is normally just "Earth"

e.g "Earth is home to life as we know it."

or "The Earth is home to life as we know it."

Which sounds best depends on context, sentence flow, and (if talking verbally) accent.

Not trying to be a smarty pants but can you talk non-verbally? And I think signing is signing.

Oh and some use, gods earth. Not me but each to their own so long as the message is understood.

[Norpo]

Not trying to be a smarty pants but can you talk non-verbally? And I think signing is signing.

Communicating verbally, as opposed to typing

But yeah, I used the wrong word there.

[Cydonian Monk]

I voted for "The Earth," but only because the definitive article is underrepresented. (Besides - Jules Verne's book would've been boring had it been called "From Earth to Moon.")