re: Bolide is an old, outmoded term?
I don't know about "old", or "outmoded", but it is certainly deprecated by the IAU, and most meteor researchers I work with no longer use it. "Fireball" is a better term, since it has a formal definition; any details of a fireball's appearance are best elaborated upon with more than a single word that might, or might not, mean it was observed to fragment.
Personally, I advise against using the term in any technical discussion or publication.
Chris Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory