Why is Earth's moon still named just "The Moon" (and our sun still named "The Sun")

Vanguard_Ex

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Now I remember why I stopped coming here. Something this stupid seriously 'bugs you too damn much'?
 

Razor_01

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Isn't the ball that orbits Earth and other planets called Satellites? No not the dishes that we put up there... I could be wrong but the satellite that orbits Earth is called the Moon. People reference the other Satellites around other planets as their "Moon" but they should be saying their particular name (which unless you have one heck of a memory nobody is going to remember them all) or they should be saying Satellite.

You hear people saying the Sun in this other solar system is blah blah but they should say Star.

Just my thoughts.
 

pilouuuu

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OK, just to make it clear to all those that say that Luna and Sol is just Latin and not used anymore, everyone who speaks Spanish call them that way. And Tierra for Earth.
 

Jarek Mace

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Radoh said:
OlasDAlmighty said:
Bhaalspawn said:
Snip

And when you say Fiance are you speaking French?
What about when you say Spaghetti, are you speaking Italian?
Have you ever used the word Ergo? What about Impromptu? Quid Pro Quo?
How about any of the words from http://wordinfo.info/unit/3277 ?
You act like we need to use only English words when speaking in English, but the Language inherently draws from other places. We're not going to make up our own words for everything, so before you start trying to find an English name for Sol and Luna, you should first start finding names for every single non-English speaking country, since those all come from their own native tongues.
Ouch! What Radoh said, Sol and Luna are pretty much the most commonly accepted names; they're not just used in Star Trek and Mass Effect and your comment about us not speaking Latin was just plain silly.
But I'm a nice guy, so here's some Aloe Vera for that burn.
 

2clueless

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Apr 11, 2012
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I realize that the OP has bailed.

However.

' Why is our moon still named "The Moon" (and our sun still named "The Sun") '

They are. You even found out why by your own self. Why are you asking us? Is there any reason they shouldn't be referred to by those names?

' They don't sound cool enough! '

Your point?

' I just thought that.. '

Your first problem. You tried to think. Next!
 

WOPR

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Last I checked they were called "Luna" and "Sol". At least in college astronomy they are.
 

Ieyke

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Our planetary system consists of the following:
The Sun
The Planet
The Planet
The Planet around which orbits The Moon
The Planet
The Planet
The Planet
The Planet
The Planet
The Planet(shut up, it's a planet)

In a time when we hadn't yet figured out that a lot of other stars are suns too (stars with planetary systems orbiting them), and our telescopes weren't powerful enough to see other moons orbiting other planets, we really only had those 11 (actually less, since it took us forever to find the ones beyond Saturn)celestial spheres to deal with.

Can you guess which ones ones would cause confusion when referred to simply by their type, and which ones were no problem?

Yea, referring to "The Planet" isn't very specific, so we more or less started off right away calling them by their proper Latin names. This wasn't a problem for The Sun and The Moon until those terms were already deeply embedded in common usage by the time we realized our sun was just another star, and our moon had cousins circling basically every planet ever.
So, while we were now aware that other stars with planets were suns too, and other planets had moons, it was simply too late to swap "Sun" and "Moon" out of common usage for referring specifically to our system star, and Earth's primary satellite, and get people to use their proper Latin names, "Sol" and "Luna"

Scientists didn't so much have that problem. They went right on ahead and named everything relating to "The Sun" after its proper Latin name:
That's why our planetary system is called the "Solar System"
why we collect "solar power"
why the length of a "day" on the other Solar System planets is designated as a "Sol"
why an eclipse of our sun is called a "Solar eclipse"
why the use of the mass of our sun as a unit of measure (for measuring other stars) is referred to as a "Solar Mass"
why the streams of charged particles emitted by our sun are called "Solar winds"
why the radiation emitted by our sun is called "Solar radiation"
etc
etc
etc
etc

Same deal with things relating to our moon being named after its proper name:
Lunar calendars
Lunar eclipses
Lunar months
Lunar phases
Lunar atmosphere
Lunar bases
Lunar soil
Lunar craters
Lunar geology
Lunar cycles
etc
etc
etc
etc


Latin and math are the languages of science, and science is the arbiter of universally recognized naming.
"Sun", "Sonne", "Soleil", "Sole", "Sola", etc etc etc are all just the common names variants for Sol in other languages, and many of them are even obvious derivatives of "Sol" itself.
 

Ieyke

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HippySteve said:
BlazeRaider said:
I propose we rename them something more respectable.

The Sun --> Celestia
The Moon --> Luna

:D

Let's also rename space in general as discord.
No. Why?
An MLP:FiM joke.



Razor_01 said:
Isn't the ball that orbits Earth and other planets called Satellites? No not the dishes that we put up there... I could be wrong but the satellite that orbits Earth is called the Moon. People reference the other Satellites around other planets as their "Moon" but they should be saying their particular name (which unless you have one heck of a memory nobody is going to remember them all) or they should be saying Satellite.

You hear people saying the Sun in this other solar system is blah blah but they should say Star.

Just my thoughts.
Negative.

Anything orbiting anything else is a satellite.
A natural satellite orbiting a planet is a moon.
moon (mn)
n.

2. A natural satellite revolving around a planet.
All suns are stars, but only stars with planetary systems orbiting them are suns.
sun (sn)
n.

2. A star that is the center of a planetary system.
 

Spade Lead

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DoPo said:
I believe it is because people used to call the big bright thing in the sky "sun" and the other smaller but still big bright thing "moon". It was after that they found out that they didn't live on the only planet, and other planets also had these two things - some times even in greater quantity. So they went "meh" and called all the sun looking things suns, same for the moon looking ones, so the former name, became the whole class of things.
Which would actually make sense, since the naming conventions for ships is to name the class after the first ship to be commisioned: The Iowa was the first of the Iowa Class of World War 2 American Battleship.
 

Olas

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Dec 24, 2011
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2clueless said:
I realize that the OP has bailed.

However.

' Why is our moon still named "The Moon" (and our sun still named "The Sun") '

They are. You even found out why by your own self. Why are you asking us? Is there any reason they shouldn't be referred to by those names?

' They don't sound cool enough! '

Your point?

' I just thought that.. '

Your first problem. You tried to think. Next!
Wow, some people are being really condescending about this.

Anyway, my issue isn't with how 'cool' anything sounds. It's just basic practicality. "the moon", our moon's name, could also be a reference to literally any moon. I find that odd and needlessly confusing.
But if that's the way you like it, then fine. To each their own I guess.

I find it silly and impractical in the same way I find the English system of measurement silly and impractical compared to the metric system. It's just a preference. Some people just like the old ways I suppose.

But apparently on this site feeling as such makes me a complete twat, so I'm dropping the issue.

And yes I know I said I was done, with this thread. I couldn't help myself, so sue me. Though I think I actually am done this time, unless someone actually has anything new to say about it.
 

KapnKerfuffle

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May 17, 2008
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It will work itself out when we start traveling between each sun and moon.
"I'm heading out for the moon base."
"Which moon base?"
"Oh sorry, I meant Sol's moon base."
"Saul has a moon base? I thought he was just a tax attorney. He must be doing well for himself!"
"No, SOL. Terra's moon base. Luna."
"Oh right."