I love etymology:
Would not “terraeform” be better English and Latin than “terraform?” I’m thinking on analogy with aquaeductus — is there a precedent for “terraform?”
I agree terrae- (like agri-) will be a better prefix in Latin, but not necessarily in English. Referencing OED, you do have an 1847 precedent (nouns, not verbs) for the English form with Terraculture = Agriculture (terracultural a. = agricultural), and an 1891 precedent Terrasphere = tellurion = “An apparatus illustrating the effect of the earth’s diurnal rotation and annual revolution and obliquity of axis in causing the alternations of day and night and the succession of the seasons; a simple kind of orrery.”
There is Terrae filius in English as two words (again nominal, not verbal) = “A person of obscure parentage”.
but Terraefilial in English as a one-word adjective = “Earthly, worldly, sordid”. And terræfilian a., “of or pertaining to a terræ filius”.
Terraform sounds more natural to me in modern English than terraeform because, unless you want to stress the second syllable of terraeform, terraform (with a stress on the first syllable) is easier to say.
Oxford English Dictionary. Terraform = The process of transforming a planet into one sufficiently similar to the earth to support terrestrial life.
1949 ‘W. STEWART’ in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 15/1 I’ve got the Martian industrial trust interested in an atomic furnace to make synthetic terraforming diamonds. 1989 Daily Tel. 4 Nov. p. xiii/5 Mars..is a dry, cold and almost airless world that will need considerable changes, or ‘terraforming’, before people can roam its deserts without protective clothing. 1993 Sci. Fiction Age Jan. 12/2 Mars-Firsters, or Reds, who see terraforming as an unrectifiable insult to the uniqueness of the planet.
So terraform v. trans., to transform (an environment or planet) in this way; terraformed ppl. a.1949 ‘W. STEWART’ in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 37/1 That little terraformed planetoid, outside the mines and the drift, had been the base of supplies for Freedonia. Ibid., Once old Bruce O’Banion..hired Jim Drake to terraform it. 1974 NIVEN & POURNELLE Mote in God’s Eye (1975) I. iv. 33 The middle two planets are inhabited, both terraformed by First Empire scientists after Jasper Murcheson. 1992 Waldenbooks Hailing Frequencies 14/1 Venus had been terraformed, more or less.
I’ll start with the last item first.
Due to the nature of English, “terraeform” and “terraform” should sound exactly the same. The second syllable, being unstressed, will become a schwa in either case. You might also write it “terreform,” as “aqueduct,” but I prefer spellings in English like “aquaeduct.”
I did not know about “Terrae filius,” thank you.
I will hardly use “terrasphere” as a precedent, as it is a mutated hybrid mixing Latin and Greek roots, always to be shunned. “Geosphere” will be the correct term here (or better: "geosphaere).
Thank you though for the discussion. Terraeform it is!
Don’t mention it, Lucus. Thanks for listening. To me at least, as an English speaker, “terraeform” and “terraform” sound different, but many don’t care about enunciation, and who’s to say they’re wrong when ambiguity isn’t a problem.
Nè feceris eius mentionem, Luce! Quod audivisti tibi gratias. Mihi saltem, “terraeform” atque “terraform” dictiones anglicè dissimiliter sonant, at sunt plures quae curam pro bene enunciando non habent. Quis autem eos errare dicat dum ne ambiguitas problematica sit?
[Post scriptum.
Sadly, the word “geosphere” actually refers to something else: “any of the more or less spherical concentric regions that together constitute the earth and its atmosphere”.
Pro dolor, “geosphere” dictio anglicè enimverò sic dicere vult: “ulla e regionibus et paenè rotundis et concentricis quae unâ terram aeremque faciunt vel constituunt”.]