Eorthlic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Archaic term meaning belonging to the earth or to this mortal world rather than heaven or the spiritual realm
2. An old English adjective describing something of the earth, worldly and material rather than divine or heavenly
3. Relating to the physical world we live in, as opposed to the spiritual or celestial, in an older usage

Etymology: Old English "eorþlīc" was built from "eorþe," meaning earth, plus the suffix "-līc," the ancestor of modern "-ly." That suffix began as a separate noun, "līc," meaning body or physical form, which is also the source of "like" in its older sense of "having the form of." So the word originally meant something like "earth-bodied," describing things that had the nature of the ground. The spelling "eorthlic" is a manuscript variant. The "th" stands for the Old English letter "þ" (thorn), which was later replaced by "th" in print. Over centuries the word lost its "-lic" ending in favor of "-ly," producing the modern "earthly."