a. and sb. Also 5 -yall(e, 5–7 -iall(e, 7 tere-. Also 5–8 terrestial(l after celestial. [f. L. terrestri-s (f. terra earth) + -AL. Cf. obs. F. terrestriel (16th c. in Godef.).]
1. Of or pertaining to this world, or to earth as opposed to heaven; earthly; worldly; mundane.
1432–50. trans. Higden (Rolls), II. 183. The hieste powere intellectiue … separate somme tyme from substaunces terrestrialle.
c. 1460. in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 82. Graunt to man the blysse eternalle When he passith thys lyfe terrestryalle.
c. 1470. Ashby, Active Policy, 592. What man is he that is terrestial But of hym thus sadly wol speke & telle?
1526. Tindale, 1 Cor. xv. 40. There are celestiall bodyes, and there are bodyes terrestriall.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 182 b. Depriued of his terrestrial Croune, to be recompensed with an heauenly garland.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s T., T iij b. Their eyes are dazeled with terrestiall delights.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 67, ¶ 2. The happiest lot of terrestrial existence.
1868. Law, Beacons of Bible (1869), 47. The guilty have then no terrestrial refuge.
2. Of, pertaining, or referring to the earth; often in terrestrial ball, globe, sphere, the earth.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., III. ii. 41. From vnder this Terrestriall Ball.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 6. Extended to the plaine of the terrestriall Horizon.
1645. Evelyn, Diary, 21 Feb. The celestial, terrestrial, and subterranean deities.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. v. 19. The Sphericality of this Terrestial [ed. 1684 -trial] Globe.
1796. H. Hunter, trans. St.-Pierre’s Stud. Nat., I. 563. The two terrestrial Hemispheres are not projected in the same manner.
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, I. 149. These families, it is said, continue to sigh after the terrestrial paradise of their ancestors.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), III. 38. The subject of terrestrial magnetism.
† b. Proceeding from, or belonging to, the solid earth or its soil; not atmospheric. Obs.
1658. J. Rowland, Moufet’s Theat. Ins., 908. Terrestrial or earthy Honey we call that, because the dew going away, it is suckt out of the very sweat of the earth.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xviii. 139. The Terrestrial Steam may … considerably alter the gravity or pressure of the Atmosphere.
c. Consisting of earth or soil. (humorous.)
1844. O. W. Holmes, Lines Berksh. Jubilee, 48. No soil upon earth is so dear to our eyes As the soil we first stirred in terrestrial pies!
d. spec. Terrestrial globe, a globe with a map of the earth on its surface: see GLOBE sb. 3; † terrestrial line (obs.): see quot. 1704; terrestrial telescope, one used for observing terrestrial objects.
1559. [see GLOBE sb. 3].
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 31. In the Clocke [of Strassburg Cathedral] … there is a terrestrial globe.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Terrestrial Line…. Line Terrestrial, in Perspective, is a Right Line, wherein the Geometrical Plane, and that of the Picture or Draught intersect one another.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sc. & Art, I. 487. The Terrestrial Telescope, or Perspective Glass.
1837. Goring & Pritchard, Microgr., 153. Terrestrial telescopes will not have received their finishing touch,… until their secondary image is just as perfect as their first.
1869. Tyndall, in Fortn. Rev., 1 Feb., 245. The poles, equator, and parallel of latitude of an ordinary terrestrial globe.
† 3. Of the nature or character of earth, esp. as being dry and solid or pulverulent; possessing earth-like properties or qualities; earthy. Obs.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 21. [Quick lime] whose moisture is altogether exhaled, so as there remaineth therein nothing else, but the terrestrial parts replenished with a fiery vertue.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xviii. 49 The thick and terrestrial Excrements of the Kidneys.
1684–5. Boyle, Min. Waters, 29. Of the division of the Cap. Mort. into saline and terrestrial and other parts not dissoluble in Water.
1756. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 903. Acids … do dissolve animal calculi, by acting upon their terrestrial parts.
4. Of, or pertaining to, the land of the world, as distinct from the waters.
1628. Hobbes, Thucyd. (1822), 20. We offer you a naval not a terrestrial league.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 7 Nov. The terrestrial and naval battailes here graven.
1839. Alison, Hist. Europe (1849–50), VII. xlii. § 55. 136. While England was … extending her naval dominion,… Napoleon was … advancing in his career of terrestrial empire.
5. Nat. Hist. Occurring on, or inhabiting, land: a. Zool. Living on the land as distinguished from the waters, or on the ground as distinct from the air; applied spec. to birds of the order Terrestres, and to air-breathing mollusks and crustaceans.
1638. Rawley, trans. Bacon’s Life & Death (1650), 54. Fishes need lesse Refrigeration than Terrestriall Creatures.
1727–41. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Bird, Birds are usually divided into terrestrial, and aquatic.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 479. The subserviency of our planet to the support of terrestrial as well as aquatic species.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., xii. (1873), 341. The distribution of terrestrial animals.
1888. Rolleston & Jackson, Anim. Life, 455. A few Gastropoda are terrestrial and air-breathers.
b. Bot. Growing in the soil; distinguished from aquatic, marine, parasitic, or epiphytic.
1831. J. Davies, Manual Mat. Med., 424. Fungi. Terrestrial or parasitical plants of very variable consistence, but never of a green colour.
1849. Lyell, 2nd Visit U.S. (1850), II. 305. Land covered with a luxuriant vegetation of terrestrial plants.
1875. Bennett & Dyer, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 660. The autumn crocus, tulip, crown imperial, terrestrial orchids.
B. sb. (The adj. used absol.) a. A terrestrial being; esp. a human being, a mortal; in quot. 1598, a man of secular estate, a layman. b. The terrestrial world, the earth (rare). c. pl. Terrestrial animals, orders, or families: see quot. 1842.
a. 1598. Shaks., Merry W., III. i. 108 (Qo. 1). Giue me thy hand, terestiall … Giue me thy hand, celestiall.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 691. Heav’n that knows what all terrestrials need, Repose to night, and toil to day decreed.
1873. Proctor, Expanse Heav. (1877), 235. Varieties of effect altogether unfamiliar to us terrestrials.
b. 1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 598. Thou,… Whose little heart, is moor’d within a nook Of this obscure terrestrial.
c. 1842. Brande & Cox, Dict. Sc., etc., Terrestrials,… the name of a section of the class Aves, corresponding to the orders Rasores and Cursores; also of a family of Pulmonated Gastropods, and of a division of Isopodous Crustaceans.
Hence Terrestrialism, worldliness (as a way of life), secularity; Terrestrialize v., trans. to make terrestrial or earthly.
1856. Grindon, Life, xxiii. (1875), 297. Falling neither into fanaticism nor terrestrialism.
1829. Wilson, in Blackw. Mag., XXV. 389. Every breath of air we draw is terrestrialized or etherealized by imagination.
1901. Edin. Rev., April, 357. Once terrestrialised, life … is ‘not a dream but may become one.’
