Weather Tidbits: The Origin and Meaning of the Word “Meteorology”

This Weather Tidbits will discuss about the origin and meaning behind the word “meteorology”. Understandably, there is some confusion out there on what meteorology is. Take one look at the word and you will see the another word wedged in there. That word is “meteor”. This observation may lead one to believe that meteorologists study meteors and space. That is not the case! We leave that to our astronomy friends. We study the atmosphere including weather and climate!

Then why is the study of the atmosphere called meteorology? Meteorology is derived from the two Greek words meteoron and logia. Meteoron means “in the air” and logia means to “discuss, study, and explain”. When you put the two words together, you get the study of things high up in the air. In this case, weather!

Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote a book called Meteorologica. This was a book all about what was known of weather phenomena around 340 BC! The name of the book was derived from the word meteoron. For the many passing centuries afterward the name stuck. That is why we call the study of the atmosphere meteorology!