terrene

See also: Terrene

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English terrene, from Anglo-Norman terriene, feminine of terrien, from Latin terrēnus, from terra (“earth”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /təˈɹiːn/, /tɛˈɹiːn/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn

Adjective

terrene (comparative more terrene, superlative most terrene)

1. Pertaining to earth or the material world; earthly, terrestrial (as opposed to heavenly or marine).
   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

     God set before him a mortal and immortal life, a nature celestial and terrene.

   • 1882, Laurens P. Hickok, “The Understanding”, in Empirical Psychology, Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co., page 87:

     The common conceptions of the matters which lie at the basis of our terrene experience

   • 1888, Henry James, The Patagonia:

     One had never thought of the sea as the great place of safety, but now it came over one that there is no place so safe from the land. When it does not give you trouble it takes it away—takes away letters and telegrams and newspapers and visits and duties and efforts, all the complications, all the superfluities and superstitions that we have stuffed into our terrene life.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Arius, warring his life long upon the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father, and Valentine, spurning Christ’s terrene body, and the subtle African heresiarch Sabellius who held that the Father was Himself His own Son.

   • 1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!:

     For the earth was both celestial and terrene, the down here and the up there.

2. (science fiction) Made of matter (as opposed to antimatter).

   Antonym: contraterrene

Derived terms

• salino-terrene
• subterrene
• superterrene

Noun

terrene

1. (poetic) The Earth's surface; the earth; the ground.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Tenfold the length of this terrene

Etymology 2

Noun

terrene (plural terrenes)

1. Dated form of tureen.
   • March 27, 1760, Horace Walpole, letter to George Montagu Esq.

     Execrable varnished pictures, chests, cabinets, commodes, tables, stands, boxes, riding on one another's backs, and loaded with terrenes, filligree, figures, and everything upon earth

References

• “terrene, adj. and n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “terrene, adj. 2”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.

Anagrams

• enterer, re-enter, re-entre, reenter, reentre, reënter, terreen

Italian

Adjective

terrene f pl

1. feminine plural of terreno

Anagrams

• rentrée

Latin

Adjective

terrēne

1. vocative masculine singular of terrēnus