Earthly capitalized

Question

Do you capitalize the word "earthly" if you are referring to planet Earth?e.g. - They were startled by the brute force of the Earthly lightning, as it struck the ground before them.Thanks.

Enoon · Accepted Answer

AskAndAnswer Do you capitalize the word "earthly" if you are referring to planet Earth?e.g. - They were startled by the brute force of the Earthly lightning, as it struck the ground before them.Thanks.

Possibly, but almost certainly not. What other kind of lightning is there?

MrGuedes · Answer

No. Normally you don't. Only when it's "Earth" and it refers to our planet. You don't do it with derived words, or with the word itself when it's used metaphorically, or not to refer the planet. Neither do you capitalise it when it refers to a verb, meaning "bury".

The same thing happens with most of the words you capitalise, but that can have different meanings or derived words. For example, you talk about "the ****", but you can metaphorically refer to "a living ****" or "a hellish person".

Anonymous · Answer

enoonPossibly, but almost certainly not. What other kind of lightning is there?

Capitalize it in this case. Lightning is presumably common on most planets with a decent atmosphere, no? And the above phrase sounds like some sci-fi line where multiple planets may figure and Earthly lightning is being differentiated as stronger in comparison to other –capitalized– planets. Else the word is redundant, capitalized or not. I think it is useful to capitalize the word when you are really talking about our planet as compared to using it in common phrases such as, "what on earth" and "no earthly reason". ~k

MrGuedes · Answer

AnonymousCapitalize it in this case. Lightning is presumably common on most planets with a decent atmosphere, no? And the above phrase sounds like some sci-fi line where multiple planets may figure and Earthly lightning is being differentiated as stronger in comparison to other –capitalized– planets.

I'm not an expert in English, but I would never capitalise it here. I believe it's not common practice to do so with words that are derived from other usually capitalised words, even if they bear the same or similar meanings. But I can't be sure. My recommendation, though, is that you don't do it. But that's up to you. Unfortunately, I can't be surer than this about what I'm saying...

Anonymous · Answer

Some other planets do experience lightning. Venus does for instance (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Acid_clouds_and_lightning)

MrGuedes · Answer

AnonymousSome other planets do experience lightning. Venus does for instance (http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Venus_Express/Acid_clouds_and_lightning )

It makes sense that Venus has lightning. It is a planet with an immensely dense atmosphere, loaded with sulphur, methane, and lots of other heavy gases. It has clouds which would, expectably, be loaded with electricity, and thus be propitious to forming lightning.

But that doesn't matter when it comes to grammar. I have never seen "earthly" capitalised. I've just opened up three online dictionaries, and none of them capitalises "earthly" (check them out: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/earthly; http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/earthly; http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/earthly).

Therefore, I recommend that you do not capitalise the word "earthly"; and, henceforward, I recommend checking whether most dictionaries capitalise any word in question or not, in order to make your decision.

Earthly capitalized

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