Why is it called a meteor?
The word comes from Ancient Greek meaning 'high in the air'. Long ago, anything happening in the sky, even rain, was called a meteor.
The word meteor comes from the Ancient Greek word meteōros, which means 'high in the air' or 'raised up'.
Long ago, people used the word for many things that happened in the sky. Rain, snow, hail, rainbows, lightning and shooting stars were all called meteors. That is why the study of weather is still called meteorology, even though it has nothing to do with space rocks! Ancient Greek thinkers, such as Aristotle, wrote a book called Meteorologica about all these sky events.
Over time, the word meteor came to mean just the streaks of light we now call shooting stars. Scientists then built other words from it:
- Meteoroid: the small rock in space before it reaches Earth. - Meteorite: the piece that lands on the ground. - Meteoritics: the science of studying meteorites. - Micrometeorite: a very tiny meteorite.
The word asteroid also comes from Greek, meaning 'star-like', because asteroids look like tiny stars through telescopes. And comet comes from a Greek word meaning 'long-haired', because a comet's tail looks like flowing hair.
So when you talk about meteors, you are using a word that is more than 2,000 years old.