The term planet means 'wanderer'. (It is from the Greek planomi).
Early skywatchers noticed that almost all the stars move in a steady rotation across the heavens. (Of course it is really the earth which rotates). But a handful of stars zigzagged irregularly back and forth. (The stars seem to move all together because they are so distant from us; we notice the movement of the planets because they are much closer).
Mercury zigzagged back and forth the fastest. So Mercury became the messenger of the gods. Venus appears at her brightest just after dusk, and just before dawn; so she became the planet of Love. And so on ...
planets
planets comes from the greek word meaning wanderers.
the Greeks called the planets wanderers
the inner planets are sometimes called Terrestrial Planets
planets, meaning the wanderers.
In a sense. The work planet comes from a Greek word meaning "wandering star."
Planets; from 'Planetes,' or 'Wanderers.'
They observed that all the stars seemed to stay still relative to each other except a small group of stars they called 'planets' the Greek for 'wanderers'. Later it was discovered that the Planets were entirely unrelated to stars and much, much closer.
the planets, the word planet comes from the latin word wanderer
terrestrial planets
They are sometimes called "major planets" to distinguish them from the "minor planets" (the asteroids) and "dwarf planets" like Pluto.
The very first astronomers merely looked at night at the stars. They noticed that almost all the stars circled the north star (Polaris) during the night (this is due to the Earth's rotation). Some of the stars seemed to be moving differently, with paths of their own, these were not stars, but were planets.