earth, n.³ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

earth n.³

earth bath (n.) [SE earth bath, ‘a kind of medical treatment in which the patient was buried up to the shoulders in the ground’ OED]

a grave.

1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 104: You did the job for ’em quite as well as if you had all ’em are things, and Cohorn wou’d’ve risen from his earth-bath tu’ve helpt you.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1881		Trumble Sl. Dict. (1890).
1881		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: ‘Earth bath’ is a grave and ‘eternity-box’ is the proper name for a coffin.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 26: Earth Bath, the grave.

earth biscuit (n.) [the save the earth attitudes of the period + the ‘whole-grain’ image of the biscuit]

(US campus) someone who identifies with the styles and concerns of the 1960s.

1990		Eble Campus Sl. Nov.
1996		D. Hume George Lonely Other 165: [...] prove I’m a regular guy instead of a sixties retro earth biscuit.
2005		posting at Geoff Thompson.com 🌐 At one end of the spectrum you have the earth biscuit, birkenstock wearing, friends of the whales practising their version of [Aikido].

earth daddy (n.) [play on a classic figure of the 1960s, the earth mother]

(US campus) older than average college male who professes the values of the 1960s.

1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 31: As in the general vocabulary of English, slang permits the compounding of words of various grammatical classes, with the exact relationship between the parts unspecified. noun + noun is the dominant pattern: [...] earth daddy ‘older-than-average college-age male with sixties values’.

earth muffin (n.) [SE earth, i.e. one who espouses the values of the sixties + muffin n.¹ (8)]

(US campus) older than average college male; used derog. to indicate one who pursues a ‘Sixties’ lifestyle; also attrib.

1987		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 3: earth muffin – person who is out of style.
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 44: Granola triggers an association with other kinds of health foods, which in turn inspire alternate forms for indicating ‘someone who identifies with the styles and concerns of the 1960s’: granola-groid, crunchy granola, crunchy, grape nut, nut-n-berry, rice-and-beaner, earth biscuit, and earth muffin.
2005		blueoregon 19 Aug. 🌐 When we started, our customers were almost all either earth-muffin hippies or urban yuppie gourmets.

earth pads (n.) (US black/campus)

1. feet.

1940		Pittsburgh Courier (PA) 27 Apr. 7/7: You want to stasch your frame in the castle of grease and kick your earth pads under the scoff board and kill yourself.
1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Earth Pads [...] Feet.

2. shoes.

1947		M.H. Boulware Jive and Sl. n.p.: Earth Pads [...] shoes.
1958		Times (Munster, IN) 19 Jan. 56/1: Slang keeps changing to keep up [...] ‘Earth-Pads’ — shoes.
1961		Long Beach Press-Telegram 14 Dec. 8: Earth pads are shoes.
1964		in Current Sl. (1967) I:4 4/1: Earth pad, n. Sneakers.

earthquake (n.)

earth-stopper (n.) [SE earth stopper, ‘one who is employed to stop up the ‘earths’ or holes of foxes’ OED]

a horse’s foot.

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

earthworm (n.)

the penis.

2000–02

earth to… [the image is of somebody day-dreaming, ‘out in space’]

(US) used to call someone’s attention, also to tease.

1979		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 3: earth to — please pay attention.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 230: ‘Hey, Eddie. Earth to Eddie!’ Maskins was standing over the table.