Tellurian

Etymology

Tellus (“Roman goddess of the Earth”) +‎ -ian

Noun

Tellurian (plural Tellurians)

1. An inhabitant of the Earth.
   • 1847, de Quincey, Thomas, “Joan of Arc”, in Miscellaneous Essays:

     If any distant world (which may be the case) are so far ahead of us Tellurians in optical resources as to see distinctly through their telescopes all that we do on earth, what is the grandest sight to which we ever treat them?

   • 1930 February, Edwards, Gawain, “A Rescue From Jupiter”, in Science Wonder Stories, volume 1, number 9, page 787:

     There is a mystery in Tellus which has not been solved. I cannot reconcile the disappearance of all its water and its race of men as well, with the legend preserved in our family that, not so very long ago, Tellurians visited us, staying beneath this very roof as guests. Why did the Earth-race die out so quickly?

   • 1965 December, Asimov, Isaac, “Water, Water, Everywhere—”, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, volume 29, number 6 (#175 overall), page 87:

     Mr. Bridges is more interested in correct usage of planetary names, rather than in mere derivations (a more useful and less frivolous involvement than mine, you see) and, for instance, advocates what he maintains to be correctly derived words such as Venustian and Hesperian for hypothetical inhabitants of Venus in place of the incorrect Venusian or Cytherean; and Tellus and Tellurian in place of Terra and Terran. He lists astronomers and classical scholars who support his views.

References

• “Tellurian” in Jeff Prucher, editor, Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2007, →ISBN, pages 233–234.
• Tellurian n. at the OED Science Fiction Citations Project

Anagrams

• unliteral