Otherwords

- In 2026, NASA launched the Artemis II, which sent four astronauts on a nine-day trip around the moon on the Orion spacecraft.

The US lunar program, Project Apollo, first landed humans on the moon 57 years earlier in 1969.

And prior to that, Project Mercury was the United States' first man in space program in the space race.

Are you sensing a theme here?

Artemis, Apollo, and Mercury are all gods from Greek and Roman mythology.

And Orion, who might have been the son of Poseidon, is at least god adjacent.

In fact, in Western tradition, all of the planets in our solar system, besides Earth, are named after deities.

On the Roman side, Mercury is the messenger god, also of travel and commerce.

Venus is the goddess of love, fertility, and prosperity.

Mars is the god of war.

Jupiter, king of the gods, is the god of the sky and thunder and lightning.

Saturn is the god of agriculture, wealth, and time.

And Neptune is the god of the sea.

Uranus is the Greek god of the sky in heavens.

Even the five dwarf planets are named after gods of various cultures.

Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld.

Ceres is a Roman goddess of agriculture.

Eris is the Greek goddess of chaos.

Haumea is the Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth.

And Makemake is the creator of humanity and god of fertility in the mythology of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.

But the final frontier is far from the only place where our language is infused with the divine.

We use words inspired by the gods every day in places that might surprise you.

I'm Dr.

Erica Brozovsky, and this is "Otherwords."

(upbeat music) - "Otherwords."

- Every day, that might feel like an exaggeration, but if you say what day of the week it is out loud, there's a good chance you're speaking a divinely influenced word.

While Sunday and Monday are day of the sun and day of the moon, which do have a respective sun god, and moon goddess in various cultures, the rest of the days are directly named after deities.

Tuesday is Tiw's Day after the Norse God of single combat law and justice.

Wednesday, Woden's Day, another name for Odin, the god of poetry and the dead, known for his wisdom and magic.

Thursday, Thor's Day, god of thunder.

And Friday, Frigg's Day, goddess of motherhood and marriage.

Saturday gets us back to the Roman God, Saturn.

And this divine nomenclature is not only the case in English.

Germanic languages like Afrikaans, Danish, and Swedish have the same Norse inspiration after Tyr, Odin, Thor, and Frigg.

In Spanish and French and most of the other romance languages, except Portugue.. Tuesday through Friday are named after Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, an.. In Hindi, the days of the week are also named after the same solar objects, including Saturn on Saturday.

But it's not just planetary, it's also godly.

For instance, Brihaspati, a Hindu god known as the teacher/guru of gods in Jupiter is the source of the word Thursday in a lot of Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asian languages.

The months also feature divine inspiration.

January is named for Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings, transitions, and doorways, which feels quite apt.

He also gives us the word janitor, since that profession used to refer to doorkeepers.

March is named after Mars, the god of war, because that was the traditional time post-winter for military campaigning to begin.

There's a theory going around that April is named after Aphrodite, goddess of love, since her Etruscan name is Apru and it is her sacred month.

May is named after Maia, the goddess of growth.

And June is named after Juno, the goddess of marriage and childbirth.

The gods also show up in the natural world around us.

The word volcano comes from vulcanus, the Roman god of fire and metal working.

The word hurricane is derived from the mythology of the Taino people, native to the Caribbean, one of the primary regions where hurricanes form.

According to one version of the story, the supreme creator goddess Atabey had two sons, one of whom created the sun and moon, as well as plants and the animals.

The second became jealous of his brother and began to destroy the creations with strong winds, becoming Jurakan, the god of destruction.

In another version, Atabey's destructive manifestation, GuaBanCex, deity of chaos and disorder, is attended by some lesser Taino zemis, including Jurakan, who controlled storms.

They're not just around us, but also inside.

For instance, the Achilles tendon was inspired by the legendary Greek warrior.

There's also the brain's hippocampus, which was named after the seahorse creatures who pulled Poseidon's chariot.

Those ones were actually half horse and half fish, not like the seahorses you see at the aquarium, which do share a shape with the brain region.

The hippocampus is also called Ammon's horn after the Egyptian god of air, who is often depicted with the head of a ram.

But a couple body parts are directly named after deities.

The iris of the eye is named after the Greek goddess of rainbows because it's the colored part of the eye, which comes in a variety of hues.

The very first vertebra in the spine, which supports the weight of the skull is called the atlas vertabra, after the titan who held up the heavens.

Many companies literally borrowed gods' names from across global cultures for their businesses, perhaps to infuse their brands with some divine qualities.

Asus, the Taiwanese electronics company, adopted their name from the winged horse Pegasus.

According to their website, Asus embodies the strength, purity, and adventurous spirit of this fantastic creature and soars to new heights with each new product it creates.

And if you're wondering why it's Asus and not Pegasus, well, that was a strategic choice, so that the company would appear earlier in business listings and printed phone books.

Canon brand cameras were originally called Kwanon after the Buddhist Bodhisattva of mercy and compassion.

The founders felt that the title reflected the benevolence of the goddess and embodied the company's vision of creating the best cameras in the world.

The prototype lens was called Kasyapa, inspired by Mahakasyapa, one of the principle disciples of Buddha.

And the original Canon logo featured the Bodhisattva with 1,000 arms and flames.

Mazda, the Japanese automotive brand known for their iconic Zoom Zoom campaign, got its name from Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian god of light, wisdom, intelligence, and harmony.

Those seem like beneficial qualities to tie your brand to.

The divinity extends beyond tech.

Take for instance, Freya, the brand of lingerie.

It's named after the Norse goddess, who in addition to love and marriage is associated with beauty, sex, and fertility, great name for an intimate apparel brand, or the Venus brand of razors, whose tagline used to be "Reveal the goddess in you."

The makeup brand Nyx was named after the Greek goddess of the night, who is associated with beauty and mystery.

Booda Organics is an American body care product brand that loosely aligns with some Buddhist philosophies.

Each product features their friendly, blissful Buddha who is a symbol for the purity, simplicity, and love that is poured into each and every container.

The athletic brand Nike was named after the winged goddess of victory, perhaps insinuating that if you wear their products, you'll be a victor and triumph over your enemies, or at least your competitors and rivals.

The Nike swoosh also serves as an abstract representation of the goddess's wing.

The American football team, the Houston Oilers, was renamed the Tennessee Titans after they relocated to Nashville.

The Titans was in fact the original name of the New York Jets, the Titans of New York, but they gave it up in the early 1960s.

Anyway, Titans owner Bud Adams explained that they wanted a new nickname to reflect strength, leadership, and other heroic qualities.

Plus, it didn't hurt that Nashville is known as the Athens of the South.

They even have a full scale replica of the Parthenon.

Lakme is an Indian cosmetics company.

While it was named after the opera, the word Lakme is French for Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of many things including wealth, abundance, and beauty.

Balaji Wafers, a popular Indian potato chip, was named after Lord Balaji, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Anahita, Persian goddess of water, fertility, healing, and wisdom has had her name borrowed for brands in fashion and jewelry.

A number of brands, both secular and non-secular, are named Shaddai, after the Hebrew, El Shaddai, one of the biblical names for God typically translating to God Almighty.

Even if the brand names don't reveal mythological inspiration, sometimes the logos do.

Mercury's winged foot in the Goodyear Tires logo implies speed and protecting travelers.

The siren in the Starbucks logo lures coffee lovers.

The Medusa head in the Versace logo was symbolically chosen for its ability to keep people's attention and prevent them from looking away.

It feels like these god-inspired words are everywhere.

Throw an AL on several of the god's names and you have an English word, Jove, jovial, Venus, venereal, Mercury, mercurial, or try an I and a C. Electra nymph of storm clouds shares a root with electric.

The Titans, the notably enormous primordial deities gave us Titanic.

Eros and Aphrodite, deities of love, gave us erotic and aphrodisiac.

Hypnos god of sleep gave us hypnotic.

You've got a nemesis?

She's the goddess of divine retribution who punished hubris against the gods.

Hear that echo?

She was a talkative nymph cursed by Hera to never start a conversation, just repeat back the last few words spoken to her.

Still need to write your thesis?

She was a primordial goddess of creation.

Don't know where you're going?

Well, we don't really use atlases anymore.

Even the word zombie may have deity-based roots.

Nzambi is a supreme god, the creator in the Congo religion practiced by some Bantu peoples in Central and Western Africa.

In Kimbundu, a Bantu language spoken in Angola, nzambi means deity and nzumbi is a type of ghost.

They both may have influenced the word we use today.

Li Grand Zombi is a snake deity in Louisiana voodoo, and both the New Orleans voodoo and Haitian vodou come from the Fan and Ewe word vodun, meaning god or deity.

Suffice it to say, we use words inspired by the gods more often than we might realize, even when we're saying adieu or goodbye, a Dieu, a shortening for the phrase, "I commend you to God."

Goodbye, a contraction of "God be with you."

If you ask me, language in general is just positively divine.