chameleon
/kəˈmi.li.ən/ noun, adjective
Forms chameleons chamaeleon chamæleon
- 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.
- noun (figurative) A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
- noun (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.
- adjective That changes or modifies its color. “The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.”
Synonyms
Etymology
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A lizardlike reptile of the genus Chamæleo, of several species, found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The skin is covered with fine granmulations; the tail is prehensile, and the body is much compressed laterally, giving it a high back.
Etymology [L. Chamaeleon, Gr. Humble, and Lion.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “chameleon”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details