chameleon
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English
[edit]
Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]- enPR: kəmē'lēən, kəmēl'yən; IPA(key): /kəˈmi.li.ən/, /kəˈmil.jən/[1][2][3]
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
[edit]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.
- (figurative) A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
- Synonym: Zelig
- 2014 September 8, Michael White, “Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe”, in The Guardian:
- 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.
- (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.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]reptile
|
person with inconstant behavior
|
Adjective
[edit]chameleon (not comparable)
References
[edit]- ^ “chameleon”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- ^ “chameleon”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- ^ “chameleon” (US) / “chameleon” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
Further reading
[edit]- “chameleon”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “chameleon”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- 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
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]chameleon m anim
Declension
[edit]Declension of chameleon (hard masculine animate)
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | chameleon | chameleoni, chameleonové |
| genitive | chameleona | chameleonů |
| dative | chameleonovi, chameleonu | chameleonům |
| accusative | chameleona | chameleony |
| vocative | chameleone | chameleoni, chameleonové |
| locative | chameleonovi, chameleonu | chameleonech |
| instrumental | chameleonem | chameleony |
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Akkadian
- English coinages
- English 4-syllable words
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Physics
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- en:Lizards
- en:People
- Czech terms with IPA pronunciation
- Czech lemmas
- Czech nouns
- Czech masculine nouns
- Czech animate nouns
- Czech masculine animate nouns
- Czech hard masculine animate nouns
- cs:Lizards