TIL Areography!

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/areography

> "The scientific study of the planet Mars' geographical features;"

Wait, theres that word again...

Also Topography refers to physical features whereas Geography is much more broad. Funny that there doesn't seem to be a single word for it.

Ha, I personally always assumed that "earth" in this context refers to land/soil. Could anyone familiar with the Greek root let me know if that works in the original?

Yes, it does. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/γῆ#Ancient_Greek:

"γῆ • (gê) f (genitive γῆς); first declension

1. land, earth 2. country 3.soil"

You can do better than that for a source. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... :

I. earth opp. to heaven, or land opp. to sea; κατὰ γῆν on land, by land

2. earth, as an element, opp. to air, water, fire

II. a land, country; γῆν πρὸ γῆς from land to land

III. the earth or ground as tilled

IV. a lump of earth, in the phrase γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ αἰτεῖν, γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ διδόναι, in token of submission

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%... is a much more detailed, less quotable dictionary entry.

As you can see, the greek word refers equally well to the planet (sense I, "the earth, including land and sea, in contrast to heaven") and the dirt (senses 2, III, and IV), just like the english word.

So it only breaks down on gas giants ;-)

I'm guessing it's Earth not earth since there's areography, I.e. "Geography of Mars".

That's just someone being cute in a space where it's relatively convenient. You're not going to find people discussing "aphroditography" for Venus.

And "geometry" means "measurement of earth" so maybe we should call it topometry? :-) (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/topometry)

We also do geometry on space and on things that do not and cannot exist in reality. Maybe it should be unimetry :)