The Modern Hebrew for the earth is כדור הארץ (kadur ha'arets). In Modern Hebrew the word כדור (kadur) means "ball," but in Biblical Hebrew the word דור (dur) means a "ball" and the letter כ (k) is a prefix meaning "like" as can be seen in the following passage.
and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land… (Isaiah 22:18, ESV)
The Hebrew word הארץ (ha'arets) is the word ארץ (erets, Strong's #776) meaning "land" with the prefix ה (ha) meaning "the." So the phrase הארץ כדור (kadur ha'arets) literally means "the ball of the earth." How כדור (kadur), which originally meant "like a ball," came to mean just "ball," I do not know. While the word ארץ (erets, Strong's #776) is often translated as "earth" in the Bible, it technically does not mean the whole earth, but simply the "land" of the earth and is often used for a "region." Incidentally, the word "land" in the verse above is the Hebrew word ארץ (erets, Strong's #776).
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 | Definition of Hebrew Words (Articles) Defining Hebrew words within their original cultural context. |
 | Definition of Hebrew Names (Articles) Defining Hebrew names based on the Hebrew words used within the names. |