chimera

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.

noun

1. (Greek mythology) 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.
   ...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
   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. (mythology, art) Any fantastic creature combining parts from different animals.
   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, page 359
3. (figurative) A foolish, incongruous, or vain thought or product of the imagination.
   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
   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, page 159
4. (figurative) 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. 17 November 2016, 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 2016-11-18
5. (architecture) 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, page 91
6. (genetics) 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
   The DNA test returned a false negative because the killer was a chimera, having absorbed her twin in utero.
7. (zoology) 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.
   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, pages 34–35
8. (figurative) Synonym of bogeyman: any terrifying thing, especially as an unreal, imagined threat.
   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
   ...full of pale fancies, and chimeras huge... 1730, James Thomson, “Autumn”, in The Seasons, page 177