terraqueous

English

WOTD – 9 June 2025

Etymology

PIE word
*h₂ékʷeh₂

Learned borrowing from Late Latin terraqueus + English -ous (suffix denoting the presence of a quality in any degree, usually an abundance). Terraqueus is derived from Latin terra (“dry land; earth, soil”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ters- (“dry”)) + Late Latin aqueus (“aqueous; watery”) (from Latin aqua (“water”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ékʷeh₂ (“water”)) + -eus (suffix forming adjectives from nouns denoting the sources of attributes)).^[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /təˈɹeɪ.kwi.əs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /təˈɹeɪ.kwi.əs/, /-ˈɹæ-/
Audio (General American); /təˈɹeɪ.kwi.əs/: (file)
Hyphenation: ter‧ra‧que‧ous

Adjective

terraqueous (not comparable) (formal, archaic)

Chiefly in terraqueous globe (that is, the Earth): consisting of both land and water.
- 1669, John Nieuhoff [i.e., Johan Nieuhof], translated by John Ogilby, An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces, to the Grand Tartar Cham Emperour of China, […], London: […] John Macock for the author, →OCLC, page 3:
  The Terraqueous Globe comprehending Sea and Land, Rivers and Lakes, ſtands divided by modern Geographers into tvvo Semi-Orbs, viz. the Old, and Nevv VVorld.
- 1678, R[alph] Cudworth, “[Chapter III.] The Digression Concerning the Plastick Life of Nature, or an Artificial, Orderly and Methodical Nature, N. 37. Chap. 3.”, in The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted; and Its Impossibility Demonstrated, London: […] Richard Royston, […], →OCLC, page 181:
  [T]here may poſſibly be One Plastick Inconſcious Nature, in the vvhole Terraqueous Globe, by vvhich Vegetables may be ſeverally organized and framed, and all things performed vvhich tranſcend the Povver of Fortuitous Mechaniſm.
- 1742, [Edward Young], “Night the First”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 14, lines 283–287:
  A Part hovv ſmall of the terraqueous Globe / Is tenanted by man? the reſt a VVaſte, / Rocks, Deſerts, frozen Seas, and burning Sands; / VVild haunts of Monſters, Poiſons, Stings, and Death: / Such is Earth's melancholy Map!
- 1782, William Cowper, “Charity”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 186:
  […] Providence enjoins to ev'ry ſoul / An union vvith the vaſt terraqueous vvhole.
- 1885, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, “Of the Famous Adventure of the Enchanted Bark”, in John Ormsby, transl., The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha […] In Four Vols, volume III, London: Smith, Elder & Co. […], →OCLC, part II, page 320:
  'And when we come to that lane^{[sic – meaning line]} your worship speaks of,' said Sancho [Panza], 'how far shall we have gone?' / 'Very far,' said Don Quixote, 'for of the three hundred and sixty degrees that this terraqueous globe contains, as computed by Ptolemy, the greatest cosmographer known, we shall have travelled one-half when we come to the line I spoke of.'
Relating to, or taking place on, both land and water.
- 1829, Andrew Ure, “Strata above the Chalk, or Tertiary Rocks”, in A New System of Geology, in Which the Great Revolutions of the Earth and Animated Nature, are Reconciled at Once to Modern Science and Sacred History, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, →OCLC, book II (The Antediluvian Period. Secondary Formations.), page 341:
  Thus the vicissitudes of the land and ocean, portrayed in the tertiary formations, harmonise perfectly with other terraqueous phenomena of the same geological period.
- 1884, John Addington Symonds, “Stella Maris”, in Vagabunduli Libellus, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., […], →OCLC, stanza LIV, page 64:
  Spirit of light and darkness! I no less / Twy-natured, but of more terraqueous mould, / In whom conflicting powers proportion hold / With poise exact, before thy proud excess / Of beauty perfect and pure lawlessness / Quail self-confounded; neither nobly bold / To dare for thee damnation, nor so cold / As to endure unscathed thy fiery stress.
- 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XLIII, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume III, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the fifth (The Woman Pays), pages 49–50:
  After this season of congealed dampness came a spell of dry frost, when strange birds from behind the North Pole began to arrive silently on the upland of Flintcomb-Ash; gaunt spectral creatures with tragical eyes—eyes which had […] been half blinded by the whirl of colossal storms and terraqueous distortions; and retained the expression of feature that such scenes had engendered.
- 1951 August, S. G. E. Lythe, “The Dundee & Newtyle Railway: I—Promotion and Management, 1825–1846”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, pages 546-547:
  So, despite the obvious difficulties of crossing the intervening Sidlaws, correspondents to the Dundee newspapers in 1817 were advocating a "terraqueous undertaking" in the form of a canal from the town into Strathmore.
- 1975, Miguel Ángel Asturias, translated by Gerald Martin, Men of Maize […], London; New York, N.Y.: Verso, published 1988, →ISBN, page 138:
  When the projectile fell in the mortar with the end of the fuse left outside like a rat's tail, others, more experienced, put the brand to it and … boom … boom … boom … violent terraqueous explosions, followed by booming detonations high up in a vast sky now full of stars.
(botany) Of a plant: living in both land and water; amphibious.
- 2004, Tatsuko Hatakeyama, Hyoe Hatakeyama, “Polysaccharides from Plants”, in Thermal Properties of Green Polymers and Biocomposites, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Kluwer Academic Publishers, published 2005, →ISBN, page 131:
  Among a large number of terraqueous plants, cellulose and lignin are dominant in nature.

Derived terms

terraqueousness

Related terms

Translations

consisting of both land and water

Catalan: terraqüi (ca)
Dutch: ^{(please verify)} aardwaterig
Finnish: maasta ja vedestä koostuva
French: terraqué (fr)
Greek: υδρόγειος (el) (ydrógeios)
Italian: terracqueo (it) m
Portuguese: terráqueo (pt) m
Spanish: terráqueo (es)

relating to, or taking place on, both land and water

Finnish: maalla ja vedellä tapahtuva (taking place)
French: please add this translation if you can

of a plant: living in both land and water — see amphibious

References

^ “terraqueous, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “terraqueous, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1] “terraqueous, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “terraqueous, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1]