Why this word is great
BOLIDE — [Noun] An extremely bright meteor or fireball, especially one that explodes in the atmosphere. From French bolide, from Latin bolis ("missile, meteor"), from Ancient Greek βολίς (bolís, "missile, arrow, javelin")—a lineage as swift and piercing as the phenomenon itself. Unlike "meteorite" (which names the cold remnant that strikes the earth) or "fireball" (a more generic blaze across the heavens), a bolide is the moment of celestial self-immolation: light as both herald and epitaph. It is the magnesium-bright streak that splits the night, the silent detonation that rattles windows miles below, the ephemeral brilliance that leaves no trace but a fading glow on the retina. Proof that some things exist only to be consumed by their own radiance.