The influence of narrow-minded views peculiar to the earlier ages of civilization led in all languages to a confusion of ideas in the Synonymic use of the words 'earth' and 'world', while the common expressions 'voyages round the world', 'map of the world', and 'new world', afford further illustrations of the same confusion.
"COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1"
Alexander von Humboldt