means A meteor is the bright streak of light produced when a small piece of space debris burns up as it plunges through Earth's atmosphere.

from From the Greek 'meteoron,' meaning 'a thing high up in the air,' built from 'meta-' (beyond) and 'aiorein' (to lift, to raise). To the ancient Greeks a 'meteor' was anything aloft and aloof in the sky — clouds, rainbows, shooting stars all counted, which is why the study of the atmosphere is still called meteorology. Only later did the word narrow to the dramatic flash we now picture, leaving its cousin science behind to mind the weather.