a. Forms: α. 4– terrene (6–8 terene, 7 terrhene). β. 5 terreyn, 6 -ein, -aine. γ. 6–7 terren. (ult. ad. L. terrēn-us, f. terra earth; an Anglo-Fr. terrene occurs in Wright, Lyric Poetry (Percy), 4. Stressed te·rrene, aud sometimes spelt terren, down to c. 1700; but terre·ne is instanced as early as 1635; terrene in 1797 and 1865. (The 15–16th-c. spellings in -ein, -eyn, -aine, suggest F. origin, and may have been influenced by F. terrain, or terrien.)]
1. Belonging to the earth or to this world; earthly; worldly, secular, temporal, material, human (as opposed to heavenly, eternal, spiritual, divine): = TERRESTRIAL 1.
α. 13[?]. K. Alis., 5685. Paradys terrene is riȝth in þe Est.
1509. Barclay, Shyp Folys (1570), 192. From terrene lucre that day withdrawe thy minde.
1548. Udall, Erasm. Par. Luke i. 17. All terrene or yearthly Kyngdomes.
1563. Homilies, II. Sacrament, I. (1859), 443. Not as especially regarding the terene and earthly creatures which remain.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. xiii. 153. Alacke our Terrene Moone is now Eclipst.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Uraria, xxxii. To keepe their Queene secure from terrene treason.
1635. Quarles, Embl., IV. i. (1728), 190. The common period of terrene conceit.
1638. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 301. They are in apparition terrhene Idolls.
a. 1711. Ken, Wks. (1721), IV. 80. With zeal wash your own spirit clean From all concupiscence terrene.
1844. Mrs. Browning, Catarina to Camoens, xix. Whatsoever eyes terrene Be the sweetest his have seen.
1865. Swinburne, Atalanta, 525. Nearer than their life of terrene days.
β. a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1906), 4. And yeuithe longe lyff and stont in this terreyn and wordly thing [F. choses mondaines et terriennes] like as hym lust.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., IV. v. 89. To declare that thei oughte to reiect terrein and yearthly substaunce.
1576. R. Hill, in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 305. You worldly wights, that haue your fancies fixt On slipper ioy of terraine pleasures here.
γ. 1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Family of Loue, 17 b. Our earthly and terren nature.
1620. J. Wilkinson, Of Courts Leet, 140. True faith and loialtie you shal beare of life, member, and terren honour.
1637. Heywood, Dial., v. Wks. 1874, VI. 200. Bury the thoughts of all such terren drosse.
2. Of the nature of earth (the substance); earthy.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. c. I. 44. Because ouermuch of the drie terrene element is mingled in it.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 11. Here the soil is generally terrene or earthy.
1807. Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 301. Combined with the finest particles of terrene matter the tidal waters could hold in suspension.
1863. J. G. Murphy, Comm. Gen. i. 2. The … aerial, aqueous, and terrene materials of the preëxistent earth.
3. Occurring on or inhabiting the land as opposed to water: = TERRESTRIAL 5.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. Members common with the terrene quadrupeds.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 20. These [shells] … are considered as substances entirely terrene.
1854. Brewster, More Worlds, iv. 86. In any terrene vertebrate.
4. Of or pertaining to the earth (as a planet): = TERRESTRIAL 2.
1635. Swan, Spec. M. (1670), 6. That the nature of the place above the Moon doth sufficiently deny the ascent of any terrene Exhalation.
1709–29. V. Mandey, Syst. Math., Geogr., 595. Of the Dimension of the Terrene Globe.
5. absol. or as sb. a. The earth, the world. b. A land or territory; also fig.
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 78. Many a Province wide Tenfold the length of this terrene.
1735. Somerville, Chase, IV. 16. The teeming rav’nous Brutes Might fill the scanty Space of this Terrene.
1830. W. Phillips, Mt. Sinai, II. 474. The vast terrene, Hereby deep shaken to its extremest bounds.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., ix. 215. That rich terrene of anthology, the pages of Shakespeare.
1894. R. J. Hinton, in Voice (N. Y.), 18 Oct., 3/5. The conservation … of our … whole terrene—may yet be found through irrigation.
