bolis

Latin noun
loaned from Greek

Last edited: 2025-10-07
Primary meaning "missile" meteor
Literal translation missile
Variants
bolis
Edited by
"missile" meteor celestial phenomenon

fireball phenomenon

alterum lampadas vocant, plane faces, alterum bolidas, quale Mutinensibus malis visum est.

‘one sort are called lampades, which means ‘torches,’ the other bolides (missiles),—that is the sort that appeared at the time of the disasters of Modena.’

— Pliny, Natural History 2.96

Genre: encyclopedia
Provenance: Rome
Date: 77-79 CE

Pliny. Natural History, Volume I: Books 1-2. Translated by H. Rackham. Loeb Classical Library 330. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938.

Cite this entry
APA (7th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). bolis (Lemma #6070). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/6070/
Chicago (Author-Date)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). bolis (Lemma #6070). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/6070/
MLA (9th)
Meinhardt, K. (2025). bolis (Lemma #6070). The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/6070/
Harvard
Meinhardt, K. (2025) bolis (Lemma #6070), The ZODIAC Glossary: A Cross-Cultural Glossary of Ancient Astral Science. Available at: https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/6070/ (Accessed: February 2, 2026).
BibTeX 
@misc{zodiac6070,
	note = {[Online; accessed 2026-02-02]},
	author = {Meinhardt, Kierán},
	year = {2025},
	title = {bolis ({Lemma} #6070)},
	url = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/6070/},
	howpublished = {https://zodiacglossary.github.io/lemma/6070/},
}