chimera

plural chimeras · alternative archaic chimaera · alternative archaic chimæra · alternative obsolete chimere · alternative obsolete chymera · alternative obsolete chemera · alternative obsolete chymæra

1. Greekhuman sciencesAlternative 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.

   The game includes a bunch of chimeras, with the lion heads shooting fire and the snake tails whipping around trying to bite the player.

   2 more examples

   ...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. artAny fantastic creature combining parts from different animals.

   2 more examples

   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

   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

3. figurativelyA foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.

   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

   3 more examples

   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

   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

   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

4. figurativelyAnything 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.

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: motley crew

5. architectureA grotesque like a gargoyle, but without a spout for rainwater.

   1 more example

   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. biologyAn organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two or more zygotes.

   The DNA test returned a false negative because the killer was a chimera, having absorbed her twin in utero.

   1 more example

   [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

7. alternativebiologyAlternative 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.

   1 more example

   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. figurativelySynonym 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

   1 more example

   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

   Synonyms: bogeyman

alternative Chimaera · alternative chimera · alternative chimaera

1. Greekhuman sciencesA supposed fire-breathing monster in Lycia with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a dragon or snake, killed by the hero Bellerophon.

   CHIMERA, a fabulous monſter...

   1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., Vol. II, p. 184

2. Ancient GreecegeographyA fire-spewing mountain in Lycia or Cilicia, presumed to be an ancient name for the Yanartaş region of Turkey's Antalya Province.

   1 more example

   CHIMERA... The foundation of the fable was, that in Lycia there was a burning mountain, or vulcano, of this name; that the top of this mountain was ſeldom without lions, nor the middle, which had very good graſs, without goats; that ſerpents bred at the bottom, which was marſhy; and that Bellerophon rendered the mountain habitable.

   1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., Vol. II, p. 184

3. historicalFormer name of Himara, a port town in southern Albania.

   CHIMÆRA, in geography, a port town of Turky in Europe, ſituated at the entrance of the gulph of Venice, in the province of Epirus, about thirty-two miles north of the city Corfu, near which are the mountains of Chimæra, which divide Epirus from Theſſaly...

   1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., Vol. II, p. 184

4. historicalFormer name of Ceraunian Mountains, the Albanian mountain range near Himara.