Gaea

Proper noun

Gaia

1. The ecosystem of the Earth regarded as a self-regulating superorganism.
   • [page 1] As I write, two Viking spacecraft are circling our fellow planet Mars, awaiting landfall instructions from the Earth. Their mission is to search for life, or evidence of life, now or long ago. This book is also about a search for life, and the quest for Gaia is an attempt to find the...1979, J[ames] E[phraim] Lovelock, “Introductory”, in Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, pages 1 and 11

   Synonyms:

   Mother Earth

2. (Greek) A Greek goddess, the personification of the earth, and one of the primordial deities from whom all the others descend.
   • While investigating the Greek mythology, we have found reason to suppose that Juno, Ceres, and Gaia are but three different forms of the same original tradition of a divine feminine: of whom Ceres is the Pelasgian copy, Juno the vivid and powerful Hellenic development, and Gaia the original...1858, W[illiam] E[wart] Gladstone, “Ilios. The Trojans Compared and Contrasted with the Greeks.”, in Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. … In Three Volumes, volume III, Oxford: At the University...
3. A female given name inspired by Mother Earth.