Why is it that meteorology is the study of weather instead of the study of meteors? The study of meteors is called “meteoritics” and fits in under astronomy which includes the study of lots of other things astronomical. The root of the word “meteorology” goes back to ancient Greek where meteoros meant “raised” or “lofty.” The still famous Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote all about it in a piece he actually called something along the lines of “meteorology.” He didn’t exactly mean weather, but he did bring his understanding of weather into it. He talked about winds under the earth causing earthquakes and tied the winds above the earth into all kinds of phenomena including?correctly?how water evaporates from the sea to come down as rain. He thought that not only thunder and lightning were products of this meteorology, but so were meteors and the milky way.

2In fact, the first of this pair words “meteor” and “meteorology” to come into English was “meteor” around 1500. And when it did, it didn’t mean a shooting star, but the study of weather?what meteorology means now. It took about a hundred years before the two words sorted themselves out and established the meanings we recognize for them today. When I talked about the word “storm” I touched on the sometimes conflicting superstitions that people used to have. The same applies to meteors or shooting stars. Of course the birth of Christ was supposed to have been advertised by a shooting star and according to the Oxford Dictionary of Superstitions the idea that you could wish upon a shooting star is recorded back in the early 1800s. Even though Shakespeare in Richard the Second says that shooting stars denote the death of kings, as early as 2000 years ago the Roman Pliny the Elder was debunking the belief that they portend any death at all.

为什么meteorology 这个词是指气象学而不是指流星学呢，而研究流星的学科被称为”meteoritics”（流星学）？天文学主要研究一系列的天文现象。流星学便是天文学的其中一个分支。Meteorology（气象学）一词的词根“meteoros”要追溯到古希腊时期。那时meteoros指“升高的，高起的”或者“高耸的，极高的。”久负盛名的古希腊哲学家亚里士多德在署名为“meteorology”的一文中大谈此词。虽然他并未指明为天气，但是字里行间确有他对天气的理解。他谈到了地表以下的风造成地震，并将地表以上的风运动和各种现象联系起来，包括：海洋水分蒸发，然后以雨水的形式回到地面。他认为“meteorology”不仅仅包括雷和闪电，还应该包括流星和银河。

事实上，大约在1500年，“meteor”这个词首先在英语中出现，而“meteorology”仍未出现。当时，它并不是指流星，而是指气象研究，也就是现在“meteorology”的意思。这两个词经过100时间，才被区分开来，有了今天我们所知道的两个意思。当我谈到“storm”（暴风雨）一词时，有时恰恰是我在谈论人们从前的迷信观念。同样，陨石或者流星也会有相同的境遇。当然，耶稣诞生也曾被认为应该用流星来形容。根据《牛津迷信词典》，向流星许愿的起源可以追溯到19世纪。对于流星的寓义，各家都有自家之言。莎士比亚在《理查德二世》中提到流星预示着国王的死亡；而早在2000年以前，古罗马学者老普林尼却揭露流星根本不预示着死亡。

（文章来自“译言网”，译者moonstruck）