Dictionary

chimera en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /kɪˈmɪəɹə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /kaɪˈmɪəɹə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /kaɪˈmerə/ (General-American)
• (Australia) audio
• /kəˈmɪɹə/ (General-American)
• /kaɪˈmɪɹə/ (General-American)

Etymology

Variant of Middle English chimere, chymere, & chymera under renewed Latin influence from the 16th century, from French chimère, from Latin Chimaera, from Ancient Greek Χίμαιρα (Khímaira, “fire-breathing mythological monster, fire-spewing Lycian or Cilician mountain”), from χίμαιρα (khímaira, “she-goat”, from χίμαρος (khímaros, “male goat”) + -α (-a)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰey-. In reference to the fish, directly from Latin Chimaera, used by Linnaeus. In reference to organisms with distinct areas of different genetic makeups, a calque of German Chimäre, used by Hans Winkler in 1907.

Meanings

1. (Greek, alt-of) Alternative letter-case form of Chimera, a supposed monster in Lycia with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a dragon or serpent, killed by the hero Bellerophon.
   alt of Chimera
   • The game includes a bunch of chimeras, with the lion heads shooting fire and the snake tails whipping around trying to bite the player.
   • ...beestis clepid chymeres, that han a part of ech beest, and suche ben not, no but oonly in opynyoun... 1382, John Purvey, Bible, Prologue, p. 31
   • Bellerophon was commanded to destroy this monster, and with the assistance of the flying horse, Pegasus, he slew the chimera. 1860, E. Cust, “The Chimeras: An Attempt to Show that the Compound Animals of the Assyrian Marbles are Representations of those Erected by Solomon and Jeroboam (Read 1st and 8th December, 1859.)”, in Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, volume XII, Liverpool: Adam Holden, →OCLC, page 99:
2. Any fantastic creature combining parts from different animals.
   • The Magophonia was essentially the eruption of a long-simmering animosity between the pārsās (who revered Ahura Mazdā) and the Median magi (who believed in the supremacy of Mithra and Apam Napāt). A vivid expression of this animosity is displayed on the door jambs of Persepolis, where Darius is killing with a dagger a chimera monster with a scorpion tail. 2014, Abolala Soudavar, “Appendix II – From the Avesta to Sufi Treatises: A Standard Literary Technique”, in Mithraic Societies: From Brotherhood Ideal to Religion’s Adversary, Houston, Tx.: Abolala Soudavar, →ISBN, page 359:
   • A voice had called him forth to think in solitude—a voice he durst not resist, the awful one of the future. It fell on John's heart like the mutter of approaching desolation. He heard it coming on, as the spell-bound in a hideous dream await, wordless and shivering, the progress of some chimera monster, whose grasp is to crush and destroy. 1853, “the O’Hara Family” [pseudonym; John Banim], chapter XV, in The Nowlans, London: Simms and M‘Intyre, Paternoster Row; and Donegall Street, Belfast, →OCLC, page 142:
3. (figuratively) A foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.
   • It was very different, when the masters of the science sought immortality and power; such views, although futile, were grand: but now the scene was changed. The ambition of the inquirer seemed to limit itself to the annihilation of those visions on which my interest in science was chiefly founded. I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth. 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter II, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
   • Although now considered a pseudo-science, the 'Abbasids were also fascinated by alchemy and the chimera of transforming base metals into gold for their treasury. 2009, Amira K. Bennison, The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the 'Abbasid Empire, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 159:
   • As to being taken up, himself, for a rioter, and punished with the rest, Mr Dennis dismissed that possibility from his thoughts as an idle chimera; arguing that the line of conduct he had adopted at Newgate, and the service he had rendered that day, would be more than a set-off against any evidence which might identify him as a member of the crowd: […] 1841, Charles Dickens, chapter 70, in Barnaby Rudge; a Tale of the Riots of 'Eighty, London: Chapman & Hall, Strand, →OCLC, page 344:
   • In the middle of theſe Cogitations, Apprehenſions, and Reflections, it came into my Thought one day, that all this might be a mere Chimera of my own; and that this Foot might be the Print of my own Foot, when I came on Shore from my Boat: This chear'd me up a little too, and I began to perſuade myſelf it was all a Deluſion; that it was nothing elſe but my own Foot; and why might I not come that way from the Boat, as well as I was going that way to the Boat: […] 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 86:
4. (figuratively) Anything composed of very disparate parts.
   • He built his car one piece at a time, producing a chimera with the head of a Volkswagen, the body of a Geely, and the tail of an aftermarket Porsche.
   • Throughout 12 tracks the ear is treated to a musical chimera where folk frolics and gypsy jaunts fight with klezmeric machinations and Slavic ska to form a brass infused Ottoman folk-punk or it might just be the sound of Bellowhead working as the house band in an Armenian brothel. 2016 November 17, Gill Harris, “All about: Running Away with the Circus – Trans-Siberian March Band”, in Swindon Advertiser, England: Newsquest Media Group, →OCLC, archived from the original on 18 Nov 2016:
5. A grotesque like a gargoyle, but without a spout for rainwater.
   • A chimera is essentially a hybrid animal made up of various animal parts. The famous parapet chimeras on the north tower of Notre Dame in Paris, especially the brooding double-horned fellow with protruding tongue on the west parapet originally assumed to relate to a thirteenth-century model, are classic examples. 2016, Thomas A. Fudgé, “Gargoyles and Glimpses of Forgotten Worlds”, in Medieval Religion and Its Anxieties: History and Mystery in the Other Middle Ages (The New Middle Ages), New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →DOI, →ISBN, page 91:
6. An organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two or more zygotes.
   • [P]reembryo cells from different parents can combine and grow into a chimera (an individual with cells from two or more zygotes)—in this case, an entity containing genetic material from four parents! Spontaneous chimeras […] occur rarely in our species. Recent examples include a woman who resulted from the merger of two zygotes or the early fusion of two genetically distinct embryos. 2014, David A[lan] Grimes, Linda G. Brandon, “Miscarriage: The Healthy Winnowing of Pregnancy”, in Every Third Woman in America: How Legal Abortion Transformed Our Nation, Carolina Beach, N.C.: Daymark Publishing, →ISBN:
   • The DNA test returned a false negative because the killer was a chimera, having absorbed her twin in utero.
7. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of chimaera, a cartilaginous marine fish in the subclass Holocephali and especially the order Chimaeriformes, with a blunt snout, long tail, and a spine before the first dorsal fin.
   alt of chimaera
   • The chimeras […] are an extant group of about 30 species. They have the upper jaw fused with the cranium and a gill cover over the four gill slits. They also have toothy plates that give them a ratlike appearance, thus the common name "ratfish." The group occurs in ocean depths worldwide, where they mainly feed on invertebrates. 2012, Harold M. Tyus, “Diversity 1: Chordates to Sharks”, in Ecology and Conservation of Fishes, Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, →ISBN, pages 34–35:
8. (figuratively) Synonym of bogeyman: any terrifying thing, especially as an unreal, imagined threat.
   • ...full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge... 1730, James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, page 177:
   • How could that Chymera haue come in any mannes mynd? 1587, Philippe de Mornay, translated by Philip Sidney et al., A Woorke Concerning the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, page 433:

Forms

Antonyms

monolith (antonym(s) of “anything composed of very disparate parts”)

Deriveds

chimerical · chimeralike · chimeral · chimeragenesis · tetragametic chimera · chimeric · bichimera · xenochimera · multichimera · microchimera · allochimera · the name of one of the ships of Æneas · chimerization · chimerism · chimerise

Relateds

chimere · Chimaera

Synonyms

ghost shark · bogeyman · motley crew (anything composed of very disparate parts) · rabbitfish · ratfish

Translations (55)

cs chiméra (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · nl chimère (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · uk химера (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · eo ĥimero (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · fr chimère (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · pt quimera (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · fi groteski (grotesque resembling a gargoyle) · fi khimaira (any similarly fantastic creature formed of parts from different animals) · ru химе́ра (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · de Schimäre (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · uk химера (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · pl chimera (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · ja 寄り合い所帯 (anything composed of very disparate parts) · pl chimera (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · hy պատրանք (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · sv chimär (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · fi sillikuningaskala (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · el χίμαιρα (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · fi sekasikiö (anything composed of very disparate parts) · it chimera (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · es quimera (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · ja キメラ (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · hu kiméra (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · ga ciméara (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · cs chiméra (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · fi harha (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · ru химе́ра (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · ca quimera (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · pt gárgula (grotesque resembling a gargoyle) · pl chimera (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · pl przeraza (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · ru химера (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · hy քիմերա (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · fa آمیژه (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · el χιμαιρισμός (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · ru химе́ра (grotesque resembling a gargoyle) · bg химе́ра (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · sv chimär (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · pt quimera (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · fr chimère (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · nl chimaera (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · cmn 嵌合體 /嵌合体 (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · ga ciméara (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · fa شترگاوپلنگ (any similarly fantastic creature formed of parts from different animals) · eo ĥimero (fish in the subclass Holocephali) · ja 寄せ集め (anything composed of very disparate parts) · hy ցնորք (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · el χίμαιρα (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · fi kimeeri (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · uk химера (any similarly fantastic creature formed of parts from different animals) · it chimera (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · pt quimera (foolish thought, product of the imagination) · de Chimäre (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · ca quimera (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes) · fi harhama (organism with genetically distinct cells from two or more zygotes)

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