"art of divination by means of signs derived from the earth," late 14c., from Old French géomancie, from Medieval Latin geomantia, from late Greek *geomanteia, from geo-, combining form of gē "earth" (see Gaia) + manteia "divination" (see -mancy). Related: Geomantic; geomantical.

rare earth element, named by French chemist Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1886, from holmia "holmium oxide," name of an earth identified and named in Modern Latin by the earth's discoverer, Swedish chemist Per Teodor Cleve, in 1879 from Holmia, Latin name of Stockholm. With metallic element ending -ium. Holmia was isolated from erbia, the Scandinavian earth which also yielded thulium, scandium, and ytterbium.

1722, from Italian terra cotta, literally "cooked earth," from terra "earth" (from PIE root *ters- "to dry") + cotta "baked," from Latin cocta, fem. past participle of coquere "to cook" (from PIE root *pekw- "to cook, ripen"). As a color name for brownish-red, attested from 1882.

1640s, "one sprung from the soil he inhabits" (plural autochthones), from Latinized form of Greek autokhthon "aborigines, natives, primitive inhabitants," literally "sprung from the land itself," used of the Athenians and others who claimed descent from the Pelasgians, from autos "self" (see auto-) + khthōn "land, earth, soil" (from PIE root *dhghem- "earth").

"a boring in the earth made for petroleum," 1847, from oil (n.) + well (n.).