chameleon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

   Milk of chameleon was recommended as an erotic stimulant by Avicenna.

2. 2
   noun

   A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.

   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.

3. 3
   adj

   That changes or modifies its color.

   The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

4. 4
   noun

   lizard of Africa and Madagascar able to change skin color and having a projectile tongue

Simplified etymology

Chameleon came into Middle English through Latin from Greek khamaileōn, formed from khamai, “on the ground,” and leōn, “lion,” and thus literally meaning “ground lion.” The spelling camelion later caused occasional confusion with camelopard, an old name for the giraffe, and from the 16th century chameleon was also applied figuratively to a fickle or changeable person.

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary