Etymology

earth-bathing

Today it means: The practice of partially or wholly burying the human body in fresh earth (soil) as a form of health therapy, promoted in the 1790s by Scottish physician James Graham, who claimed that the moisture and coolness of soil could draw out morbid humours and restore bodily vigor. Full definition →

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The story

Compound of earth + bathing. Widely understood to have been coined Scottish physician James Graham in the late 1780s or early 1790s. Possibly coined earlier by Gerard van Swieten in 1765 in references to practices found in the Kingdom of Granada (writing "per balneum terrae," Latin for "bath of earth").

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.