Talk:Earthling (science fiction)

"Earthite"
I prefer the term "earthite" to 'earthling'. "Earthling" is outdated and doesn't sound cool. However, "earthite" does. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vhpenguin (talk • contribs) 17:37, 7 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Well, "Earthling" is the well established term. Voortle 15:36, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

"Earther", offensive?
"Earther is also seen as offensive."

Earther is seen as "offensive"?! Who the hell by!? Who is the offender (alleged or otherwise)?! Is this encyclopedia material, or is it an excerpt from a science-fiction pulp novel? Asteriks 09:08, 28 June 2007 (UTC)


 * There is of course, nothing offensive about "Earther". Earther is rarely used outside of science fiction stories, and then not even very often. It's not uncommon for Earther to be used within a sci-fi story as a derrogative term for a person from Earth.--RLent (talk) 18:46, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Unspecified comments/suggestions
I think these kind of things also fit in encylopedia since you cant find it anywhere else and wikipedia is a big info base.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.84.77.80 (talk) 03:27, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

How about Earthan?--71.252.254.148 (talk) 05:59, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Earthanese? Earthish? Earthian? --Joowwww (talk) 17:22, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Term scope
Earthling/Terran is less of a term for human and more of a general term for life from the planet Earth/Terra. A dog is a terran, however most Terrans in StarCraft are not in fact Terrans as they spend multiple generations in a completely different star system. Also this fits original useage as an alien my not even see racially different humans as 1 species rather just a general term for a lifeform originating from Earth rather than being "Human". A citizen of the "Terran Federation" of Starship Troopers for example was not only born on Earth but had to serve the Earth bond government for a period in order to vote. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.31.179.153 (talk) 01:01, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

Should be a featured article
No other article in Wikipedia talks about the inhabitants of our planet as a whole. Carloshoyoslopez12 (talk) 03:38, 26 August 2018 (UTC)

"Earthlings are the only form of life in the universe whose existence is known."
I began to wonder about the definition of this word. Almost all sources regard it as meaning the human species. Wikipedia's intro suggests it extends to all lifeforms. Common sense is all, but virtually everywhere it's conflated with mankind. Most of the article here (not the top paragraph) does the same--184.63.159.28 (talk) 10:11, 24 September 2018 (UTC)

Correction of statement about first appearance in science fiction."
The term occurs in the science fiction magazine "Wonder Stories" in December 1930. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.36.7.14 (talk) 11:46, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

Requested move 5 June 2020

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: page not moved. (non-admin closure)  ~SS49~   {talk}  10:12, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Earthling → Earthlings – The subject of the article is in plural. Soumya-8974 talk contribs subpages 07:27, 5 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Oppose - I don't see how its any different from the other examples at WP:SINGULAR. -- Netoholic @ 10:43, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose per Netoholic. The term 'Earthling' refers to individual living beings who live on Earth, and is fine for this page (as is the first-mention use of the term 'Earthlings' when referring to all life on the planet collectively). The WP:SINGULAR section "Use the singular form" seems to apply here. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:08, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose per Talk:Martian. "Earthling" is used primarily in the context of science fiction and not in the context of groups of people in real life. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 20:52, 5 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Oppose. This article is about the term "earthling" so WP:PLURAL doesn't really apply here. And even if the article were about humans living on Earth, we also have the Human article as singular. Rreagan007 (talk) 06:53, 7 June 2020 (UTC)


 * The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.