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chamaeleon. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
chamaeleon, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
chamaeleon in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Noun
chamaeleon (plural chamaeleons)
- Alternative spelling of chameleon
Latin
Etymology
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”).
Pronunciation
Noun
chamaeleōn m (genitive chamaeleōnis or chamaeleōntis); third declension
- chameleon (a kind of lizard)
- (sometimes feminine) carline thistle
Declension
Third-declension noun (two different stems).
Descendants
References
- “chamaeleon”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- chamaeleon in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “chamaeleon”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
- 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