Meteoric Rise

[wintergreen48]

I just saw something that referred in positive terms to Obama's 'meteoric rise' (that is, until he gave his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004, no one outside of Illinois had ever heard of him, and barely four years later he is about to become President of the United States).

I THINK that what they mean is that he has risen really really really fast, with a sharp angle of ascent, but... does a meteor ever actually 'rise'? I thought that a meteor was one of the rocky things that, in space, is a meteoroid, but when it comes into the Earth's atmosphere from outer space, it typically burns up before it hits the ground (if anything is left to hit the ground, it 'evolves,' as it were, into a meteorite). Before the entire 'movement of a 'meteor' is downward, I don't think it ever actually 'rises' (unless it hits Superman and bounces up, which I do not think happens very often).

Am I missing something?

[MarleysGh0st]

Do you write for Bad Astronomy?

[mntetn]

Am I missing something?

Probably not, but the landscape is full of similar examples, such as the evolution of "star" into "superstar" and eventually "megastar" which really means a million stars ...

or the evolution of "Bambi" into a female's name ...

and should we even get started about whether one "could" or "couldn't" care less?

[mntetn]

(duplicate post deleted)

[littlebeast13]

and should we even get started about whether one "could" or "couldn't" care less?

We'll have to ask our resident expert Thousandaire....

lb13

[minimetoo26]

I go through this with Rain Man the Literal just about every day (and I see it here sometimes, too...)

It's the old Conventions of Language deal. Maybe perhaps not precisely correct, but people know what you're saying when you say it, and boy do they not like having their improper usage pointed out all the time. He's not a Junior Carnegie in the making, because while he may be influencing people to use words properly, he sure ain't making friends that way....

[peacock2121]

I would spend big bucks just to visit wintergreen's head for a day.

[minimetoo26]

I would spend big bucks just to visit wintergreen's head for a day.

I'd take the day when I'm in the Hot Seat, if we're making reservations.

Oh, wait--that's When Hell Freezes Over.

[Bob78164]

I would spend big bucks just to visit wintergreen's head for a day.

I'm guessing it's much like everyone else's, with a toilet, a sink, and perhaps a bath and/or a shower. Sorry to puncture your illusions, Pea. --Bob

[andrewjackson]

The dictionary says for meteoric, among other things:

Similar to a meteor in speed, brilliance, or brevity

So in the phrase "metoric rise" the rise is being described as something with speed, brilliance, or brevity.

Note that this usage does not say similar to a meteor in direction.

Adjectives like this often use limited aspects of the noun that they are based upon.

When we say a person gave a stellar performance, we don't mean that the performance was a big ball of gas hurtling through space. We mean that it stood out like a star.

[ulysses5019]

I would spend big bucks just to visit wintergreen's head for a day.

I'm guessing it's much like everyone else's, with a toilet, a sink, and perhaps a bath and/or a shower. Sorry to puncture your illusions, Pea. --Bob

Some of us just have a hole in the ground.

[Four Hour Stiffy]

I'll show you a meteoric rise.....

[nitrah55]

And what about "massive" heart attacks?

There's no mass involved- the heart stops beating.

[MarleysGh0st]

And what about "massive" heart attacks?

There's no mass involved- the heart stops beating.

Marty McFly: Whoa, this is heavy.

Dr. Emmett Brown: There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?

[Jeemie]

Am I missing something?

Yes.

A life.

[ToLiveIsToFly]

Am I missing something?

Probably not, but the landscape is full of similar examples, such as the evolution of "star" into "superstar" and eventually "megastar" which really means a million stars ...

or the evolution of "Bambi" into a female's name ...

and should we even get started about whether one "could" or "couldn't" care less?

And here I always thought "megastar" was some contraction of "megawatt". Yes, I know that a megawatt is a tiny, tiny fraction of the power of an actual star.

[peacock2121]

I would spend big bucks just to visit wintergreen's head for a day.

I'm guessing it's much like everyone else's, with a toilet, a sink, and perhaps a bath and/or a shower. Sorry to puncture your illusions, Pea. --Bob

I think it has special little places where thoughts like he posts about occur. I think it is like little fireworks that go off at the most unexpected times and I could just sit and listen and watch and go "WOW".

[peacock2121]

I would spend big bucks just to visit wintergreen's head for a day.

I'm guessing it's much like everyone else's, with a toilet, a sink, and perhaps a bath and/or a shower. Sorry to puncture your illusions, Pea. --Bob

Some of us just have a hole in the ground.

That too

[Thousandaire]

In China, meteors go up.

[MarleysGh0st]

In China, meteors go up.

Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull in China?

[Thousandaire]

and should we even get started about whether one "could" or "couldn't" care less?

We'll have to ask our resident expert Thousandaire....

lb13

I could of answered this, but I won't. Carry on, irregardless!

[etaoin22]

It seems to me that rocks with a very high velocity and traveling tangent to the earth's orbit will enter the atmosphere and begin to glow, with motion at the highest angular change of any observed meteor , and that half of all observers will see this as a rise in the sky. No?

Will check in the British corpus of language to see if there is any hint, other than the well worn news cliché with which we are familiar.

[Thousandaire]

In China, meteors go up.

Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull in China?

If you drill through the earth and come out in China, you'll be upside down, right?

[etaoin22]

in the late twentieth century out of a hundred million word database of written and spoken British sources,only thirty-one meteoric rises are noted, and all of them are clichéd

http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/sa ... eoric+rise

[TheCalvinator24]

In China, meteors go up.

Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull in China?

No, but there was in 1985 in Ohio.