tellurian

¹

[ te-loor-ee-uhn ]

adjective

1. of or characteristic of the earth or its inhabitants; terrestrial.

noun

1. an inhabitant of the earth.

tellurian

²

[ te-loor-ee-uhn ]

noun

1. tellurion.

tellurian

/ tɛˈlʊərɪən /

adjective

1. of or relating to the earth

noun

1. (esp in science fiction) an inhabitant of the earth

Word History and Origins

Origin of tellurian¹

First recorded in 1780–90; from Latin tellūr- (stem of tellūs ) “earth” + -ian

Word History and Origins

Origin of tellurian¹

C19: from Latin tellūs the earth

Example Sentences

This skill for elision returns, evocatively, in “Saying Goodbye to the Dead,” which begins, “I walk on the dirt roads being my father”—the speaker at once Christlike and tellurian in loss.

From The New Yorker

They are not impossible: they could be translated into actual tellurian beings, which the men and women of the bad novelist never can be.

From Project Gutenberg

He turned his face to her and said earnestly, "Did you ever sleep out on a mountain with the stars close above you?—'the vast tellurian galleons' voyaging through space?"

From Project Gutenberg

It was really like a dead forest, or like thick-set masts of shipping in a thronged port; or the vents of tellurian fires, which send up their flames by night and their smoke by day.

From Project Gutenberg