On 9/22/2020 8:47 AM, Will Martin wrote:
Similarly, we say that those from Venus are Venusians and those from Mars are Martians, but we say we are from Earth, yet we refer to ourselves as “terrestrials” and not *Earthians*.
The first word anyone thinks of when thinking of a demonym for inhabitants of Earth is /Earthling//./ Other words used to describe us: /Earther/, /Earthman, Terran/, /Tellurian/, /Gaian./ I've even heard /Earthan,/ though I think that was from a science-fiction character who wasn't sure what the right name was. Also, before /Venusian/ was popular in science-fiction, the word /Venerean/ was common. We also don't say /moonian,/ we say l/unarian/,//and in any science-fiction in which we say that, the inhabitants usually get ticked off if you call them /lunatics./ In /The First Men in the Moon,/ they're called /Selenites./ The choice of demonym isn't always /place name + ian/ in English. Inhabitants of New York are /New Yorkers. /Inhabitants of Pittsburgh are /Pittsburghers./ Inhabitants of Vancouver are /Vancouverites./ Inhabitants of Vienna are /Viennese./ Mars is kind of unusual in that it /doesn't/ have a bunch of different names. -- SuStel http://trimboli.name