"The rainbow is a meteor."
Where does such a statement come from?
From the first edition of the
Dictionary of the French Academy
.
In fact, in 1694, the definition of a meteor differed significantly from that which is ours today.
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For his part, Furetière defined in 1690 the meteor as "
an inconstant, changeable, imperfect mixture, which generates exhalations and vapors of the earth raised in the air, such as rains, winds, snows, gresles, fiery & flying fires, lightning, thunder, lightning.
"
What is the origin of the word meteor?
What then does a mixed mean?
It was thus called "
any body composed […] of elements which are not found entirely pure in nature
".
And we thus understand that the rainbow like the hail do not exist in a pure state, but result, in effect, from combinations of elements in the atmosphere.
Read alsoAsteroid, meteor, meteorite: what's the difference?
And this is how the Ark of the Covenant becomes a mixed and a meteor!
It then remains to go back to the Greek origin of said "
meteor
".
Attested in French in 1585, the word comes from the Greek
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