begin quoting John H. Robinson, IV as of Wed, Jun 22, 2005 at 02:25:43PM -0700: > Stewart Stremler wrote: > > > > A meteorite is at rest. A meteor is in transit. You aren't hit by a > > meteorite, you're hit by a meteor, as it hasn't yet come to rest. > > UHG! > > We *JUST WENT OVER THIS*
Yes. And you apparently missed the bit that said:
...and is also used to refer to the stone itself while it is in
Earth's atmosphere...
( http://www.bartleby.com/64/C004/035.html )
I find the history of the term quite interesting, actually.
> http://dictionary.reference.com/search?db=*&q=meteor
> me?te?or
> n.
> A bright trail or streak that appears in the sky when a meteoroid
> is heated to incandescence by friction with the earth's
> atmosphere. Also called falling star, meteor burst, shooting star.
All very nice, but incomplete.
And even though webster is the best of dictionaries, it also refers to a
meteor as the lump of rock as well as the streak of light:
% webster meteor
me.te.or \'me-t-e--*r, -e--.o.(*)r\ n [ME, fr. MF meteore, fr. ML meteorum,
fr. Gk meteo-ron phenomeno]n in the sky, fr. neut. of meteo-ros high in
air, fr. meta- + -eo-ros (akin to Gk aeirein to lift) 1: a phenomenon or
appearance in the atmosphere (as lightning, a rainbow, or a snowfall) 2a:
one of the small particles of matter in the solar system observable
directly only when it falls into the earth's atmosphere where friction may
cause its temporary incandescence 2b: the streak of light produced by the
passage of a meteor
%
So a meteor may be a streak of light, but it's not ONLY a streak of light.
> You are not hit by a ``bright trail or streak.'' You are hit by a lump
> of rock.
Correct. And that lump of rock is called a meteor.
-Stewart "Balancing descriptivism and prescriptivism as best we can" Stremler
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