Thunder: Any loud resounding noise (Boom!), or the sound of some self-important jerk haranguing everyone in a loud, threatening voice. (Been there, right?)
Bolt: A short, stout arrow with a heavy head, or maybe a flash of lightning. (Either one works, especially if you're out there near the pointy end.)
So then, put them together and you get "thunderbolt": "A flash of lightning accompanied by a crash of thunder." Works for me.
Often scary.
Seems more flashy and crashy the closer it is to you, and the darker the night, especially if you're out there all alone in your pup tent, having trouble getting flat enough not to feel like a target.
In various mythologies, a thunderbolt was a thing hurled by one god of thunder or another, generally for no discernable reason, because they were piffed about some insignificant annoyance, and could get away with it, being big and immortal and dickheads.
Thor was pretty good at this game: "Odin's eldest son, strongest of the gods though not the wisest." Fits the pattern, doesn't it?
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