chameleon
See also: chamaeleon, Chamaeleon, chameleón, chaméléon, and chamæleon
English
Cape Dwarf Chameleon
Alternative forms
- chamaeleon, chamæleon
Etymology
From Middle English camelion, from Old French cameleon, from Latin chamaeleon, from Ancient Greek χαμαιλέων (khamailéōn), from χαμαί (khamaí, “on the earth, on the ground”) + λέων (léōn, “lion”); ultimately a calque from Akkadian 𒌨𒈤𒊭𒆠 (nēšu ša qaqqari, “chameleon, reptile”, literally “lion of the ground", "predator that crawls upon the ground”). The spelling was re-latinized in the early 18th century. The physics sense was coined by Justin Khoury and Amanda Weltman in 2003 in a paper in Physical Review Letters.
Pronunciation
- enPR: kəmē'lēən, kəmēl'yən; IPA(key): /kəˈmi.li.ən/, /kəˈmil.jən/[1][2][3]
Audio (southern England) (file)
Noun
chameleon (plural chameleons)
- A small to mid-size reptile, of the family Chamaeleonidae, and one of the best known lizard families able to change color and project its long tongue.
- A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
- 2014, Michael White, "Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian, 8 September 2014:
- He is a political chameleon, as charming to business leaders he met privately in Aberdeen on Friday night as he has been inspiring to distressed and desperate Labour defectors in Glasgow and beyond.
- 2014, Michael White, "Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian, 8 September 2014:
- (physics) A hypothetical scalar particle with a non-linear self-interaction, giving it an effective mass that depends on its environment: the presence of other fields.
Holonyms
- (Individual Chamaeleonidae) Starship
Derived terms
- American chameleon
- chameleonize
- chameleonlike
- chameleon mineral
- chameleon plant
- chameleon schema
- Fischer's chameleon
Translations
reptile
|
person with inconstant behavior
|
Adjective
chameleon (not comparable)
- Describing something that changes color.
- The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.
References
- “chameleon”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
- “chameleon”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “chameleon” (US) / “chameleon” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
Further reading
- chameleon in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
- chameleon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- Critical and Philological Notes: Tablet XI, Note 314 in Andrew R. George (2003) The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Introduction, Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts, Volume II, Oxford University Press, pages 896-897
- nēšu(m) in Black, Jeremy; George, Andrew; Postgate, Nicholas (2000) A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 251
Czech
Noun
chameleon m
- chameleon