Humans by Any Other Name: Difference between revisions

Of course, the word "human" itself originally meant "of earth", arguably making this [[Older Than Feudalism]]. The implied contrast, however, was not inhabitants of the Earth as opposed to those of other planets, but mortals walking the earth as opposed to the celestial gods.

 

 

A subtrope of this is [[Planet Terra]].

* "Terran" (from the Latin ''Terra'', "Earth") is probably the most popular choice by far, which crept into all kinds of settings, from ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' to ''[[Blake's Seven|Blakes Seven]]'' to ''[[Starcraft]]'', along with [[wikipedia:Terran|other examples]]. It probably got popular because it sounds like [[Planet of Hats|what you might call some alien race]], and, at some point, wasn't immediately recognisable as "Earth", so it feels "alien". "Terran" also [[Rule of Cool|sounds cooler]] than "Human".

** Note that the French for Earthling is "Terrien", which reads and sounds pretty close to Terran. Thus, in many French-translated stories where 'Terrans' are involved, their name does not sound that cool and exotic (it even sounds dull when said with french phonetics).

** There's also the less common "Tellurian" from "Tellus", a variant Latin term for the Earth.

* "Solar(i)an" (from latin ''Sol'', "Sun") is used less frequently, but to exactly the same effect.

 

== Card Games ==

** Kithkin (or Sangamis in the French version), Magic's [[Hobbits]] [[Expy]], could qualify. Especially since in the Lorwyn block, there are the creature type closest to what you would expect from humans (live in cities, have pink skin, use tech rather than magic...) They have the proportions of hobbits and lead idyllic, pastoral, cooperative lives. Lorwyn deliberately had no humans in it at all unless planeswalkers count.

** Other creature types like Metathran and Kor showed up around the same time as Human in much the same manner: previously, all members of these races had only had "class" creature types. Apart from their [[Amazing Technicolor Population|blue skin]], both qualify as examples of this trope.

 

== Comics -- Books ==

* In the original [[Marvel Comics]] version of the [[Transformers]], the Autobots would refer to us as humans, while the Decepticons used the more derogatory "fleshling".

 

 

== Literature ==

** In addition, Solarian is the term used to describe the races native to the Solar System: Tellurians, Martians, and Venerians.

* [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''Cluster'' books used the term "Solarian", named after the star, as opposed to the planet.

** In ''The Andalite Chronicles'', Elfangor asks Loren if she is an Earther after hearing the name of her homeworld for the first time, leading to some speculation that the Andalite homeworld is called Andal.

** According to ''The Hork-Bajir Chronicles'', it's actually the other way around: Andalites name planets after the dominant sentient species. Unless, like Earth, the dominant species already has their own name for it.

* In the ''[[Prince Roger]]'' series, Mardukans (9-foot tall [[Multi-Armed and Dangerous|4-armed]] guys with horns) call the stranded human company ''basik'', after a rather dim creature that fills the same niche in the ecology as a rabbit. They quickly learn that this is a [[Humans Are Warriors|big]] [[Pint-Sized Powerhouse|mistake]]. The humans, in turn, call Mardukans "scummies" due to their slimy moist skins (they evolved from amphibians).

* In [[Hilari Bell]]'s YA science fiction novel ''A Matter of Profit'', the humans call themselves the Vivitare.

* The animals from [[Tamora Pierce]]'s ''Immortals'' quartet call humans "two-leggers", for obvious reasons.

 

*** It goes a bit further than that. The actual Ancient language is supposed to be similar to Latin in universe. Odds are it is a matter of certain parts of the universe lore pre-dating the point in the series where the Ancients began to be fleshed out in more detail rather than intentional.

** Played with in the ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode "Letters from Pegasus". Carson Beckett is recording a letter to his mom, and starts going off on a tangent about how "Earthlings are a scrappy bunch". Ford immediately stops him, assuming the use of the word "Earthling" as opposed to "human" to be a security breach. Carson matter-of-factly states, "She's knows I'm from Earth."

** Rebels attempting to free Mars from Earth control call their fellow humans from Earth "Earthers".

** Gaim are from N'chak'fah, Drazi are from Zhabar, Hyach are from Shir-shraba, Abbai are from Ssumssha, Yolu are from Pa'ri, Llort are from Vartas, and Hurr are from Androma.

**** It's suggested in the show that Z'Ha'Dum is not the homeworld of the Shadows, they go there {{spoiler|because they think they're honoring Lorien, who lives there.}} And "Shadow" isn't even the race's name; it's said their actual name for themselves is over 10,000 letters long.

* [[The Tomorrow People]] call normal humans "saps" (short for ''Homo sapiens'', or just because they're saps).

* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', most species have a name for the species in Federation Standard (English), which is usually derived from the Federation Standard name for their planet. (Bajorans from Bajor, Vulcans from Vulcan; in an aversion, Klingons from Qo'noS (prnonounced Kronos)). However, they also usually have a name for people from any particular planet. So a member of any species that was raised on Earth would be an Earthling, or on Bajor would be a Bajoran & so on. However, all species have at least one language of their own, which has a different name for their species that may have nothing to do with their name for their home planet. For example, in Imperial Standard Klingon (The Klingon language used by the Imperial Council, that can be learned at the Klingon Language Institute in [[Real Life]])Klingon = tlhIngan. But their homeworld is called Qo'noS. Presumably the English word 'Klingon' was just a bad Human pronunciation at first.

** Names for the earlier races seem to be names given to them by Humans, rather than what they actually call each other. The two Romulan home worlds are Romulus and Remus, then there's the afore-mentioned Vulcan and Kronos...whoever was naming these races seemed to have a yen for Greco-Roman mythology.

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Traveller]]'' divides "humaniti" into the "Solomani" (humans from Earth), the "Vilani" ([[Human Aliens]] from the planet Vland), and the "Zhodani" ([[Human Aliens]] from the planet Zhodane). The ancestors of the Vilani and the Zhodani were originally moved to those planets by the [[Precursors]]. There are several other minor human races, which were similarly transplanted from Earth.

* In ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'', the Eldar race refers to humans as "Mon-keigh" (this being the eldar word meaning 'inferior', not to mention one of the [[Anvilicious|least subtle]] puns ever). The Tau race use the term "Gue'vesa" or "Gue'la" (derived from a Chinese word for foreigners), depending upon whether said human(s) are allies or no. The remaining species of the universe (Orks, Necrons and Tyranids) refer to humans as "'umies", "the living", and "dinner", respectively.

** The Tyranids were retconned to actually be named after a world - Tyran, the first Imperial planet they ''ate''. Knowing the Imperium, the name probably came from some filing protocol: the Tyranids were first properly identified on the planet Tyran, and thus the data probably got filed under "Tyran-ID" and the name stuck.

 

== Video Games ==

* It is endlessly debated as to whether or not Hylians are human, though the word "human" is used often in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Twilight Princess'', the Oracle Series, and Majora's mask. Maybe Nintendo was trying to end the bickering?

** The difference between Human and Hylian is actually made in some games (ALTTP and OOT). The hylians are usually an almost extinct race, of which Link and Zelda are part.

** There is also an interesting note in that humans called themselves 'earthlings' when they first were meeting with alien races in an attempt to avoid the [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|implied speciesism in calling aliens inhuman]], while the aliens skipped all the bother and just called them humans. Except for the Spathi, of course, who continually refer to them as "Hunams".

** Androsynth are refered as Androsynth, as they are no longer Earth-connected AND make pretty clear that they are not in friendly terms with Humans. Not that we can blame them. 100 years of racism and slavery can cause it, just because you are born normal way.

* Averted in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' - humans are still referred to as humans. The only exception is the volus, who refer to humans as "Earth-clan". This extends to aliens as well -- in the game, no aliens species are named for their homeworld (asari come from Thessia, salarians come from Sur'Kesh, turians come from Palaven, and krogan come from Tuchanka), and, unlike many, ''many'' other SF franchises, spell them in all-lowercase, just like the word "human".

* ''Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance" has two races of characters: Beastmen are known as "Laguz" and Humans are known as "Beorc". 'Human' can also be used, but it's actually a [[N-Word Privileges|racist remark unless said by another Beorc]] (the equivalent of calling a Laguz 'sub-human').

== Web Original ==

* While being human in the modern sense is now very rare in ''[[Orions Arm]]'', the term terragen is used to denote anything with an ancestry going back to Earth.