The Metaphor Society

Meteor: Etymology, Semantic Drift, and the Metaphors of Sudden Motion

Abstract

“What goes up, must come down.”

The word meteor occupies a distinctive position at the intersection of cosmology, philosophy, and metaphor. While commonly understood today as a fiery object streaking across the night sky, meteor originally referred to anything suspended in the air—a meaning far broader and more abstract than its modern usage. This page traces the etymology of meteor from Ancient Greek through medieval natural philosophy to contemporary English, mapping its derivative forms (meteoric, meteorology, meteoroid) and the idiomatic expressions that encode its metaphorical force. Particular attention is paid to how meteor functions within a Metaphors of Movement framework: signifying sudden appearance, rapid ascent, transience, and uncontrolled descent.

Greek Origins: meteōros — “Lifted Up, Suspended”

The English word meteor derives from the Ancient Greek adjective μετέωρος (meteōros), meaning:

• raised up
• lofty
• suspended in mid-air
• aloft, unsettled

Crucially, meteōros does not originally imply fire, rock, or space. It denotes a state of suspension between realms—neither grounded nor celestial. The term is composed of:

• μετά (meta) — between, among, beyond
• ἀείρω (aeírō) — to lift, raise up

Etymologically, meteōros signifies “that which is raised up between,” a formulation that later proves highly fertile for metaphorical interpretation involving instability, impermanence, and dramatic transition.

Classical Philosophy: The Meteor as a Middle-Realm Phenomenon

In classical Greek philosophy, particularly in Aristotelian natural science, meteōra referred to all phenomena occurring between the earth and the fixed heavens. In his treatise Meteorologica, Aristotle examined clouds, rain, wind, lightning, comets, atmospheric fires, and falling stones.

These phenomena belonged to the sub-lunary realm—the mutable, unstable region beneath the Moon, in contrast to the perfect and eternal heavens beyond it. A “meteor” was therefore not a discrete object but a process in motion, often transient, unpredictable, and difficult to categorise.

This framing is central to later metaphorical uses: meteors are things that appear suddenly, move dramatically, and disappear without permanence.

Latin and Medieval Transmission

The Greek term entered Latin as meteorum and meteora, retaining its broad meaning of aerial or atmospheric phenomena. Medieval scholastic texts—still grounded in Aristotelian cosmology—used meteor to describe lightning, halos, comets, falling stars, and unusual lights in the sky.

Only with the decline of Aristotelian physics during the early modern period did the word begin to narrow semantically.

Scientific Narrowing: From Atmosphere to Space Object

By the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, meteor acquired its modern technical sense:

• meteor — the visible streak of light caused by an object burning in the atmosphere
• meteoroid — the object while still in space
• meteorite — the fragment that reaches the ground

From a metaphorical perspective, this narrowing is historically late and conceptually reductive. Linguistically, it obscures the word’s original emphasis on suspension, instability, and transition.

Derivative Forms and Semantic Fields

Meteoric

The adjective meteoric preserves much of the metaphorical power lost by the noun meteor. Its dominant connotations include:

• suddenness
• rapidity
• spectacle
• brevity
• instability

Common examples include “a meteoric rise to fame” or “a meteoric career.” Within a Metaphors of Movement framework, meteoric implies high upward velocity without structural support, often carrying an implicit expectation of collapse or disappearance.

Meteorology

Despite popular misunderstanding, meteorology does not originally mean the study of space objects. It literally refers to the study of things suspended in the air, preserving the older Greek sense of meteōra.

Meteorite

The meteorite represents semantic closure: that which was once suspended but has fallen and become grounded. Conceptually, it is the failure of suspension.

The word meteorite comes from Greek roots: meteoron (“thing high up”) and the suffix -ite, meaning it’s a rock from the sky, specifically the stony remnant of a meteor (shooting star) that falls to Earth. While meteor originally meant any atmospheric phenomenon, meteorite emerged in the 19th century for space rocks hitting Earth, derived from the meteor process (meteor + -ite).

The suffix “-ite” has several meanings, most commonly denoting a person from a place or follower of a belief (like Israelite, Thatcherite), a mineral or fossil (like granite, ammonite), or a chemical compound/product (like sulfite, dynamite), often originating from Greek or Latin roots related to “stone” or “belonging to”. It can also signify a segment of a body part (like somite) or a type of salt from an “-ous” acid (like phosphite).

Idioms and Fixed Expressions

English idioms involving meteors are remarkably consistent in their movement logic:

• a meteoric rise — rapid ascent with minimal preparation
• to rise like a meteor — sudden visibility and dramatic entry
• burn bright and fade — brilliance without duration

Principally, the unspoken suggestion is that it’s an earth rock falling back down.

Metaphors of Movement Analysis

Within a Metaphors of Movement model, meteor belongs to a distinctive cluster characterised by:

• upward then downward motion
• extreme speed
• lack of control
• high visibility
• short duration

This makes the meteor metaphor particularly useful for describing careers, social influence, fame, emotional surges, ideologies, and trends. A meteoric trajectory is movement without containment.

Psychological and Cultural Resonance

Meteor metaphors persist because they encode a cultural ambivalence: awe at rapid ascent paired with anxiety about impermanence. In psychological and narrative contexts, meteoric movement often signals externally driven validation, fragile self-structure, and unsustainable pacing. Something heavily promoted by predatory gurus in the personal development/personal success/financial freedom industry.

The warning implicit in the metaphor is not against success, but against velocity that exceeds integration.

Not everything that rises is ready to remain aloft. As idiot life coaches like to say, “shoot for the stars, if you miss, you will land on the moon.” They say this like it’s a good thing.