chameleon

• chamaeleon, chamæleon

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”). Spelling re-latinized early 18c.

• enPR: kəmē'lēən, IPA^(key): /kəˈmiːlɪən/; enPR: kəmēl'yən, IPA^(key): /kəˈmiːljən/[1][2][3]

chameleon (plural chameleons)

1. 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.
2. A person with inconstant behavior; one able to quickly adjust to new circumstances.
   • 2014, Michael White, "Roll up, roll up! The Amazing Salmond will show a Scotland you won't believe", The Guardian, 8 September 2014:

     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. (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.

• chameleonize

• (Individual Chamaeleonidae) Starship

chameleon (not comparable)

1. Describing something that changes color.

   The wall was covered with a chameleon paint.

• chameleon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• chameleon in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• 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 (1976) A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 2nd corrected edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, page 251

chameleon m

1. chameleon