meteorn.¹adj.¹

Etymology: < Middle French meteores, plural (c1270 in Old French in form Metheores as title of a treatise by Aristotle) or its etymon post-classical Latin meteora, neuter plural (from end of 12th cent. in British sources in form Metheora as title of Aristotle's treatise; 13th cent. in a British source also in form metheora in sense ‘celestial phenomena’) < ancient Greek μετέωρα , use as noun of neuter plural of (Attic) μετέωρος raised, lofty, an alteration (with quantitative metathesis) of μετήορος (in Homer) < μετα- meta- prefix + ἠορ- , ablaut variant of the base of ἀείρειν to raise, lift up (see aorta n.). In later use as an inferred singular after use in senses A. 1 and A. 2a. Compare Italian meteora (a1617; 14th cent. in Dante in form metaura with reference to Aristotle's treatise), Spanish meteoro (early 17th cent.), Portuguese meteoro (18th cent.).French météore is attested in most English senses at later dates (1671 in sense A. 2a, 1690 in sense A. 3a, 1829 in sense A. 4). With aqueous , igneous , luminous , and aerial meteors (see sense A. 2a) compare French météores aqueuex, ignés, lumineux (1671) and aériens (1701). Middle French meteore is also attested as an adjective with sense ‘that is produced in the atmosphere’ (1552). Metrical evidence suggests that a pronunciation with a glide (/ˈmiːtjə/) was common up to the late 19th cent., but N.E.D. (1906) gives the pronunciation as (mī·tĭˌǫ̆ɹ) /ˈmiːtɪə(r)/, and Webster (1854 onwards) records only a trisyllabic form. All editions of D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. until 1989 give /ˈmiːtjə/ as the predominant form and the trisyllabic form as a variant; the statuses are reversed in the 1989 ed.